


Noble Intentions

by not_alone



Category: Lab Rats (TV 2012), Mighty Med
Genre: F/M, some violence
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-10
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-02 19:47:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 19
Words: 44,480
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24222295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/not_alone/pseuds/not_alone
Summary: [also posted on tumblr] [AU. Lab Rats vs Mighty Med redux.] The Lab Rats and Mighty Med teams face off with the greatest threat to humanity yet: The Incapacitator, a supervillain bent on becoming the most powerful in the planet ... which makes things super awkward for Leo considering that their newest nemesis is his father.
Relationships: Donald Davenport/Tasha Davenport
Comments: 4
Kudos: 25





	1. I: Heirloom

**Author's Note:**

> Cross-posting on tumblr under my account there. This resulted from a discussion where rock-n-writing-archaeologist brought out one of the theories(?)/idea that The Incapacitator is Leo's dad. Someone else said that before, and remembering that inspired this little multi-chapter. 
> 
> I know Damion Poitier (The Incapacitator) is too young to play a teenager's dad, so let's all pretend he's about a decade older in this haha.

Joel hums and taps his foot along with the song filling his garage. _Heaven Must Have Sent You,_ The Elgins. He will never not know what this song is; it was his mother’s favorite. It takes him back to Saturday mornings when she would be busy baking cakes for some of her friends at church while he and his little brother watched, eating cereal for breakfast.

He smiles a little as he meticulously twists the shock coils together. Those were the good days. He and Arty would watch cartoons then play outside until it gets dark. The world had never been absolutely safe, at least for families like them, but it was a bit better.

Now, everything has just gone to the dumps.

Still, memories of this song, of his mother and brother, and of his affectionate father give him some hope. It motivates him to be better in his work, too.

Thoughts of his kid suddenly drift into his mind, and he can’t help but chuckle. If it was all up to him, he wouldn’t be staying up this late, pulling all stops to ensure safety. He had always been more like his Uncle Pete: he was a man of action – act now, adapt later.

Planning ahead really isn’t like him. However, if he thinks about it in the perspective of his child, he can admit that the mission he’s about to embark on is dangerous enough to warrant precautionary measures.

He grins, clicking the black hilt back in its place. His boy. He’s just so smart. If his Nana was alive, he thinks she would love him. His kid was definitely a man of action like him, but he was also born with a heart of gold like his grandmother.

It makes the kid just a tad bit too optimistic about the world, in his opinion – but he would eventually outgrow that.

The boy’s intelligent, too. He would like to think he got that from him; before all of this, he was an electrical engineer. But, he allows that his ex-girlfriend contributed much to that intelligence gene, too.

She’s a smart a woman. That’s why he fell in love with her after just one conversation. Nothing was ever boring whenever she’s talking.

Well, she was a smart woman. He doesn’t know what’s gotten into her marrying _that_ idiot.

He pins a clamp on each the four outlets of the suit as the song changes. He slips on his gloves, puts his safety goggle back on, then rolls his chair back a considerable distance. When he reaches the control panel, he turns the key and presses the on button.

Then he cranks the lever on High.

The lights in the house flicker violently. The panel shoots off some sparks in angry protest, and he hears the circuitry crackle.

The power finally blows out—but only for a few seconds. When everything comes back on, he sees that his modifications worked.

He laughs, his baritone voice filling the eerily silent garage. “Let’s see them stop me now,” he says to himself as he counts down the hours to the next phase of his plan.


	2. II: On the Verge of a Storm

Leo punches in the last batch of information on the computer while a song from the newest Childish album thumps softly through his headphone. He double checks the record – _approximately mid-September 1995_ – just to make sure he got it right.

He huffs. All of these repetitive tasks are killing his brain cells. Day in and day out, he does the same things. He’d been an assistant for his stepfather for about three years now. He really thought they would give him a new job, especially since they have an actual school to run.

But no, of course not. All they did was stick him behind a bigger, fancier desk and change his title from Mission Specialist to Information Manager.

They’re not fooling anyone. It’s the same old job.

He sighs, leaning back on his swivel chair. He really should be out there helping them. He should be a mentor! There are some things he can teach the students.

Secretly, he finds it a little laughable that Bree really thinks she can handle the Modern Living classes. What’s worse still is that his stepfather and his brothers actually think it’s a good idea, too.

Modern Living? With a girl who’s only been out in the world for three years? What does she or any of them know about living in the world out there? They’re rich, they’re powerful, they’re good-looking. Not once in their lives had they ever had to adapt to the harsher realities of real living.

They’ve never known what it’s like to be followed in stores, to feel like people’s idea of welcoming them is by distrusting them. They don’t know what it’s like to avoid certain neighborhoods out of fear for their lives. They don’t know what it’s like to live paycheck to paycheck, to see things and have their hearts break when they realize they just don’t have any money to even want for those things.

They’ve never wanted - they’ve just always _had._

_Wait. What are you thinking?_ He shakes his head then pulls down his headphones to his neck. He can’t think like this. His father thinks like this, and…

No. That doesn’t mean he’s becoming like him. That doesn’t mean he would turn into him.

Desperate for a change of thought, he returns his attention back on his task. He double checks the entire record, making sure no blank is left unfilled. Once he’s done, he clicks on Update. 

He takes a calming breath as it loads. _It’s okay. It doesn’t make you a bad person_ , he tells himself as condemnatory feelings from earlier thoughts loom like a dark cloud at the back of his mind. _It’s just not a good day. You’re just super irritated. It’s okay._

“Hey, Leo!” Chase greets as he and their father stroll into the quarters. “How’s data entry going?”

“Oh, you know. _Peachy_ ,” he tells them, grinning sardonically. “I feel like I am making such a difference in the world by making sure we know Donald the Third’s birthday is sometime mid-September.”

“You _are_ making a difference in the world,” Donald says as he approaches the kitchenette. “You’re helping us have an accurate record on the students. Plus, we have to know when the students’ birthdays are!”

_Right. As opposed to knowing when my graduation was and being there to support me,_ Leo thinks bitterly but doesn’t say. “How did the webcast go?” he asks his stepbrother.

Chase scoffs. “Mr. Davenport didn’t let me talk.”

“So it went _great,_ ” Donald says, grinning.

Chase rolls his eyes. “Whatever. Let’s just find a company that will mass produce the energy transponder.”

“I…already did.”

“What?”

“As soon as the presentation was over, I made a phone call. That was it. After that, the deal was done.”

Chase frowns. “Why didn’t you consult me?”

“Yeah,” Leo chimes in. “I thought this would be your ‘big project’ together.”

“Well, if I did that, then I’d have to listen to him,” Donald says, pointing to Chase. “I don’t know if you know, but he tends to drone on and on about things that no one is ever interested in.”

“Hm. Wonder where he got that from,” Leo says, brows hitched as he stares at the tech mogul.

“Well, did you at least go with a company that’s environmentally conscious?” Chase demands.

“Well, I considered that – and many, _many_ other things,” Donald says then grins, “but in the end I just went with the one that will make me more money. Ka-ching!”

Leo and Chase watch as their father walks out of the quarters, a bottle of water in hand, grinning from ear to ear. 

Leo leans back on his chair and crosses his arms thoughtfully. “Sometimes I wonder about his fitness in being a father.”

Chase sighs. “Don’t remind me. I’ve got a feeling this won’t be the only time he’d do it.”

“Well, what are you going to do about it?”

“What _is_ there to do? It’s not like companies would deal with me,” Chase says. “To them, I’m just a collaborator. I’m just his kid.”

“Don’t you have a copy of the blueprint?”

Chase looks at him thoughtfully, bordering suspicion. “Are you suggesting I make deals on my own?”

“I’m suggesting you’re the other half of this project. The company he’s chosen can’t do anything unless you both sign the agreement.”

A smirk of understanding slowly pulls at Chase’s lips.

“The ball is still in your court,” Leo confirms, smiling. “The buyers can look at you anyway they want, but the fact is that you’re 18. Chase, you’re not exactly a minor anymore. You’ve got a say in this.”

Chase grins. “You know, Mr. Davenport won’t be happy that you pointed that out to me.”

Leo slowly turns his swivel chair away from his brother. “Pointed _what_ out to you?” he feigns cluelessness before turning his back completely on him.

Chase grins as his younger brother slips on his headphones back on.

After Chase exits the quarters, armed with a tank of newfound confidence, a text message comes in through Leo’s phone.

_Monday, 12:16 PM_

_Hey. You with your mom?_

Leo frowns at his phone.

**_No. She’s out in Bakersfield on an assignment. Why?_ **

_12:19 PM_

_You’re with your family?_

**_Yeah? Why?_ **

_You didn’t tell me you’d be there._

It feels like he had been doused with cold water.

That doesn’t sit right with him. He doesn’t like the suspicions and theories rising in his head one bit.

_**Dad…** _

_**Please don’t tell me you’re trying to do something** _

_**You agreed they’re off limits** _

_I agreed YOU’RE off-limits, and your mother._

Leo gets up, taps the phone icon on top of the text messages, then places the phone on his ear. He crosses the quarters as it rings, looking around to make sure there’s no one within earshot. He walks out as far as he can from the building and from the surveillance cameras that might hear.

The other line rings for a few more seconds. Then: _“Leo?”_

“Dad? Where are you, and what are you doing?”

He chuckles. _“I’m used to this level of suspicion from superheroes, not my own kid.”_

“Because it sounds like you’re planning something.” Leo glances behind him and sees no one. He whispers, “Why do you ask me if I’m with them? You wouldn’t have done that if you didn’t think I could get hurt.”

_“I just wanted to know where you are!”_ his dad says. It grates a little on Leo’s nerves to hear him laugh. How could he find this amusing? _“What are you doing right now?”_

“I’m helping out my stepdad with their student records. I just finished the last file.”

There’s a pause. _“You know I don’t like you doing this,”_ his father finally says, and it’s not difficult to pick up on the inkling of disappointment. _“You’re a smart young man. You finished high school earlier than your stepsiblings. You can create and do things no one else can! Why are you letting them do this to you?”_

“What about you? You could have chosen to be a superhero.”

His father sighs. _“Superheroes are fighting a lost cause, son. You know that,”_ he says. _“And you know why I won’t be like them. They’re incompetent. Why would I willingly work alongside them?”_

Leo closes his eyes in surrender. Of course. His father never liked heroes because of what happened to his family. “I’m sorry, Dad. I’ve just been super irritated today. I don’t like this at all either,” he confesses wearily. “I’m wasting away behind a desk. I know that, too.”

_“You know you can always join me.”_

Leo smirks. “What, and get pummeled during our first fight? I barely survived the ones I’ve gone on with my stepsiblings.” He chuckles. “You know I’m not like you. I don’t have any abilities.”

_“But you’re smart. You can just put together what you need.”_

“I’ve told you about the attack orbs. It ended up in a disaster.”

_“Ah, it’s been a year since. Plus, I can always help you.”_

Leo grins. He would never admit it, but the thought does make him feel a lot better. “You said you’ll let me choose what I’m going to be.”

_“If your stepdad doesn’t promote you any time soon, I’m gonna have to change my mind. The heroes are just wasting your talent.”_

Leo laughs. “Seriously, Dad. Where are you? What are you doing?”

_“Nothing important. I just finished lunch.”_ He pauses for a moment. _“I’ve been working on something. It’s all for you.”_

Leo smirks albeit with his brows furrowed. “What do you mean?”

_“I mean, I’ve been thinking about your future. I’m not going to get any younger, Leo. My line of work is thrilling, and even though I think most superheroes aren’t bright enough to catch me, I know that one day someone will come along and end my career.”_ He chuckles. _“I’m not exactly in a line of work where people can just retire. Others_ …make _us retire.”_

He knows his father is being realistic, and it’s good that he views the future with some humor. Still, he can’t look at it with the same level of apathy. “Please don’t say that. That’s not funny.”

_“I’m just being real. I won’t be a good father if I just filled your head with fantasies,”_ his father replies. _“Hey. We should meet up soon. I want you to see this one place. When will you have some time off?”_

Leo thinks about it. “It’s smack dead in the middle of summer. Since I’m not a student here, and I don’t really care to stick around to be their errand boy, I’d say sometime tonight.”

_“Your stepdad won’t be suspicious?”_

Leo scoffs in disgust. “He’s too busy conning my stepbrother and daydreaming about more money. I doubt he has any room to think about anything else.”

_“Hm. Your mom really could have married anyone else. She could have married Tecton, and I would have preferred that a lot better.”_

“Usually, I would say that it’s not a good idea, but you know what? Today, I agree.”

His father chuckles. _“All right. I’ll call you soon.”_

“Okay. Bye, Dad.”

_“Bye, son.”_

Leo hangs up but stares at his phone a while. _I’ll call you soon,_ his father says. He chuckles. He really should ease up on the paranoia. 

Urged with thoughts of hunger, he comes back into the main building then heads for the cafeteria. He thinks of the fact that he would get to spend time with his father soon. They didn’t get to hang out after his graduation, probably because his mother was there. He saw him in the crowd during the ceremony but he was gone right after.

The hopeful images of him being taken away from there bring a certain lightness to his steps. He likes the island, but he doesn’t like much what goes on between the people who live in it.

As he lists the things he’d like to do on his vacation, he neglects to notice the alert that the hydroloop is jetting inland at lightning speed, carrying with it the person he didn’t know was already coming.


	3. III: Harken the Thunder Clouds!

“It’s right here.”

He takes in the room and has to admit that he’s impressed. He’s done as much research as he could of the place. The very little he obtained seemed insightful at the time.

Now, he thinks it didn’t do the technologically advanced island much justice.

The energy transponder catches his attention. “It’s beautiful,” he says, smiling at it.

“Yeah. It’s very shiny,” Chase says excitedly. “Now, I have to tell you: I’m not sure if my father will be onboard. I know that you’d need him to sign, too, for the deal to go through.”

“Oh, I wouldn’t worry too much about that. I’m sure there are ways to persuade him.”

The bionic hero nods. He steps back, allows him a moment to take in the prototype. Then, he frowns. “By the way, I don’t think I got your name.”

The smirk that he’s been concealing fully emerges on his lips. “How rude of me. It’s—” he shoots an energy blast at him, flinging him backward, “The Incapacitator.”

The bionic hero doesn’t get up. He lies on the floor immobile, knocked completely out.

He laughs. He uproots the security box from the base and turns to leave.

However, a thought stops him. He glances at the kid one more time, sizing him up. 

It disgusts him to think that his son is frequently treated less because of the likes of him. 

“For being the smartest man on Earth, you sure are dumb,” he says resentfully. “Sleep well, Little Davenport.” Then, he leaves the room with the main component of his plan.

– Ϟ –

With the din of the cafeteria droning in the background, Leo zeroes in on the circuit board he’s working on. He’s absolute he’s wrecking his back hunching over this, but the delicate component is the only thing left to modify before he tests his invention again.

The conversation with his father inspired the completion of this project. He abandoned it a few months ago when they settled their fight against the bionic army under S-2’s control (he still can’t believe they didn’t figure that there’s another puppeteer behind the curtain beside Krane). He just didn’t think it’s necessary anymore. The island’s at peace, and there’s no one he really needs to defend himself against. 

He grins. A pair of gloves, designed to absorb energy and release it as a photon blast. He thinks The Incapacitator will find this a hoot. He probably won’t show this to his family, mostly because he doesn’t think they need to know of it.

A few minutes more, and he tires of the project. He unplugs the soldering iron, puts the wires and the transistor leads back into his work kit, and then carefully winds the cord of the plug. 

Once he’s packed everything away (the circuit board more carefully than others), he gets up and turns to head back to the quarters.

He’s stopped in his tracks at the sight of Bree and Adam rushing into the cafeteria. Their eyes quickly scan the sea of surprised students until finally, they land on him. “Hey…” he says suspiciously as they dash towards him. “What’s going on?”

“You gotta come with us.” Bree grabs his left wrist and drags him along. “Chase was just attacked.”

“What?” he says as Bree leads the three of them past the curious crowd. “You mean like _attacked_ attacked or like _students made jokes with him as the material_ attacked?”

“ _Attacked_ attacked!” Bree says exasperatedly. She presses onward more urgently. “Come on!”

“Ooh! What’d you have in your case, Leo?” Adam excitedly asks as they make their way through the hall.

Leo pretends not to hear him, not only because he doesn’t want to tell but also because as they approach the transponder room, an ugly, dreadful feeling has begun to rise in his chest. 

_I will see you soon_ , his father said. Now he wonders how soon he had in mind.

– Ϟ –

“Chase!”

“What happened?”

Chase groans as he sits up. “I was showing the transponder to a potential buyer.”

“You brought a complete stranger in here?” Donald screeches.

“I didn’t. He just showed up here on his own,” mutters Chase, rubbing the haze out of his eyes.

“How could he know how to get here?” Bree asks. “Besides our family and a very select number of people, no one should know how to get to the island.”

“I don’t know,” sighs Chase. His brows furrow as he recalls what happened. “The guy blasted me with some kind of energy force.”

Leo thinks his heart has stopped as the alarm in his mind rings louder. Energy force.

He can almost imagine what color.

“Where’s the transponder?” Donald asks, eyeing the empty base.

“He must’ve taken it.”

“Great. Chase, what were you thinking?” Donald barks.

“Oh, I don’t know. Maybe that you made a deal without me, and I was going to make an even better one without you!” Chase fires back.

“Well, if your deal was to get knocked out and robbed, you did a bang-up job,” Adam says before he and Bree pull him back to his feet.

“We need to find the guy who did this,” Bree says.

“It wasn’t just some guy,” Chase tells his sister. “That energy blast wasn’t human.

“Then what was he? Bionic? An android?” Adam gasps. “What if he’s an evil Jedi from a galaxy far, far away?”

Chase casts a withering stare his way. “I think I would know if I was attacked by a Sith,” he says.

“So we don’t know who we’re dealing with or what he’s capable of,” Bree says to their father, ignoring Adam.

Leo’s frozen in place. He does. He knows who and what: _The Incapacitator, capable of absorbing energy and wreaking havoc with it._

But he wishes he didn’t.

He schools his features to remain neutral. They can’t know he’s scared. They can’t know he’s terrified of them knowing that he knows or that he’s terrified of the thought that the culprit will get caught.

Most of all, he’s terrified of them finding out that he’s absolutely torn between wanting them to succeed and wanting his father to get away safely.

“I’ll contact the authorities,” Donald says. “Get in your mission suits. This guy could still be on the island. Until further notice, everyone’s on high alert.”

“Uh, B-Big D,” he stammers, stopping his family at the door. “I’m going to help look on the other side of the island.”

Donald eyes him in both annoyance and confusion. “You can’t set off on your own,” he says. “You don’t have any bionics to fall back on if you encounter him.”

“I won’t confront him, I promise,” Leo says. Desperate, he reasons, “We can cover more ground that way. I’ll call if I find him.”

Donald sighs. “Fine. Do whatever you want. Just make sure nothing happens to you,” he says. _Because your mother is going to kill me,_ Leo can almost hear him mumble as he exits the room with his children.

Once they’re gone, Leo releases the breath he’s been holding. That was too close for comfort. _Good thing they were too focused on the transponder to look my way,_ he thinks.

After forming a rough plan, he draws his phone out of his jean pocket. 1:37 PM. That means his father was on his way to the island earlier when they were speaking on the phone.

He huffs. Right. It’s not like he hasn’t done that before. What’s more important at the moment is finding him before his family does.

If something holds them back, which is very likely since they’re with Adam, he calculates that he has about 12 minutes to locate his dad first. Not that much time, especially for a guy who’s got neither the bionic ability nor the superpower to move at lightning speed, but it has to do for now.

Armed with his own secret ways of tracking the gifteds, Leo exits the room with what should have been a gift for his father, hoping that the hero side won’t mind him giving the supervillain a way out of their grasp one more time.


	4. IV: Disaster Med

Kaz flinches when Chase’s laser bo staff slams against Gray Granite’s staff. The superheroes are currently locked on a heated battle against the bionic trio, and while he _knows_ this could result into someone getting hurt, he doesn’t feel inclined to clear out the misunderstanding that started it.

“We should tell them, Kaz,” Oliver says worriedly as they watch behind a pillar. “What if someone gets hurt?”

Leave it to his best friend to know exactly what he’s thinking of _not_ doing. “Dude. Do you—”

They’re both knocked off their feet as Adam’s blast wave missed Tecton and hits their hiding place instead. Stars dance in front of his eyes as his left arm, exposed from the pillar, feels like it had been run over by a truck three times over.

He groans, struggling up to his feet. “You want to get in the middle of that?” he asks Oliver quietly as he pulls him up his feet.

Oliver says nothing, only winces as he retreats even more to safety.

They startle when Gamma Girl crashes against Tecton after Bree tackled her. The two superheroes are left dazed while the bionic teenager uses her free time to help Adam with Gray Granite.

Kaz grins. This is _definitely_ a lot better than going to any comic book store in Amsterdam.

– Ϟ –

Leo knows he’s come just a tad bit too late. Running towards the quarters, he could hear his stepfather screaming as blasts boom at a regular rate inside. When he finally arrives, he sees he’s right: the place is a mess, his stepfather is on the floor looking up in fear at the superpowered trespasser, and The Incapacitator holds close the container bearing the energy transponder.

He frowns. He knows he really should be worried about other, more important things, but - has his father’s suit gotten tighter or is he just imagining things?

Noting his presence, Donald looks his way. “No,” he says fearfully, especially when The Incapacitator looks his way, too. “No. Leo, get out of here!”

Leo doesn’t move. He only stares at the supervillain defiantly. “Incapacitator,” he says neutrally – a greeting of sorts.

“ _The_ Incapacitator.”

He almost rolls his eyes. “Are we gonna be hung up on that ‘the’ the whole day, or…?”

The Incapacitator only chuckles.

He’s suddenly reminded of the fact that he lied to him. “Why are you here?” he says as he stares him in the eye.

“Mr. Davenport tells me that the only way to open this box is by getting past this retina scan,” The Incapacitator says. He sits the container on top of the overturned coffee table and grins superciliously. “I can’t decide: should I take an impression of his eye, or should I just take the whole eyeball out?”

“Please don’t.”

“Leo, don’t,” Donald orders, stopping him from coming any closer. “He’s not bionic. You can’t escape this like you escaped Marcus or Krane.”

Leo’s jaw locks then unlocks as he looks at his stepfather then his father. He was able to escape from Marcus due to a series of good opportunities that opened up and some quick thinking.

Krane, he didn’t escape.

The Incapacitator killed him.

He could see from his dad’s eyes that there’s no stopping him. From what he can piece together, he knows the energy transponder is necessary for whatever new plan he has. So, hating himself for what he has to suggest, he asks in resign, “If I open it for you, can you promise not to do any of those things?”

“It depends. Some people, I just can’t stand these days. I don’t know if I can promise.”

_I don’t think you know how to promise either,_ Leo thinks bitterly as he makes a move towards the weapons case.

“No, Leo!” Donald stops him. “We can’t just give it to him. He’s going to drain the whole world of power. He can’t have it!”

Leo hesitates. It’s not his father’s first world domination plan, but it sounds a lot deadlier than the other ones.

The Incapacitator charges up energy in his right hand. “Tick tock,” he softly presses.

Leo glares at him. He said he would never put him in a spot where he had to choose between doing the right thing and making a decision as his son. “I feel like you’re breaking something here,” he says in disappointment.

The grin on The Incapacitator’s face remains, but a small spark of recognition has gone off in his eyes.

However, it doesn’t stay long. An idea comes to mind, and a new, wolfish grin comes up to his face. He constructs a lasso of green energy then throws it.

It wraps around Leo’s torso all too quickly and all too tightly. “What are you doing? Let me go!” he screams, struggling against it as he’s lifted up in the air.

“Please! Stop!” Donald asks, horrified.

“What about it, Mr. Davenport?” the supervillain says. “The energy transponder or the boy?”

“Big D, don’t!”

“I can take energy from other things around me, or I can take energy from _him_.”

When Donald hesitates, The Incapacitator pulls Leo closer until he’s hovering just above them.

Then Leo feels it, the energy lasso closing in tighter around him. It presses his arms against his body, the growing pressure squeezing out his breath slowly. His heart panics like a spooked bird in a cage.

Doubt suffocates him even more. His father is not going to kill him, right? He loves him, right?

“Okay, okay!” he hears his stepfather yell as dizziness has begun setting in. “I’ll open it. Just – just let go of my son.”

As the restraints eases and the sudden rush of oxygen makes his head swim, he sees an outline of movement towards the container. He’s slowly let down on the ground. Once the scanner emits a beep, the energy lasso vanishes altogether.

His stepfather crawls towards him. “Are you okay?” he asks.

Leo nods.

They watch helplessly as The Incapacitator holds the invention up as a test. Lights flicker and technology crackle all around the quarters as the transponder draws power. It keeps taking, taking, taking – siphoning too much power into the wrong hands.

Once he’s satisfied, The Incapacitator powers off the transponder and smirks at the device.

It’s then that they hear a rush from the hall. Not a moment later, the room fills with the very people Leo both wished he would and would never see. “Don’t move, Incapacitator,” orders Tecton.

“You’re too late, Tecton,” the supervillain says. “I already have what I need to make you and the entire world bow down at my feet.”

He draws a super charge of energy and encases Tecton, Gamma Girl, and Gray Granite within a sphere before they can act. With the powerful superheroes imprisoned, he sends them out through the roof.

Spackle and debris spray around them. As destruction lies all around, Leo realizes that for the second time in his life, he’s truly afraid of the darkness his father holds inside.

“That’s it,” Chase says, furious. “I got us into this mess. I’m going to get us out.”

“No! Chase,” he tells his brother, staggering up to his feet. “He’s too powerful!”

Fueled by a sense of duty, Chase activates the laser bo staff. Then, he comes at the supervillain.

The more experienced of the two, The Incapacitator blocks the attack easily. He overloads the bo staff with energy to anchor Chase in place.

Chase freezes, the surge of electricity locking him to vulnerability.

With this advantage, The Incapacitator charges a deathly blast of energy to finish him.

“No!” Leo screams. When the supervillain looks at him, he shakes his head pleadingly. “Please. Please not my brother.”

The Incapacitator considers it a moment. Then, he sets off an energy blast similar to Adam’s, knocking Chase out and knocking the others off their feet. “Nice doing business with you, Mr. Davenport,” he says, smiling at the inventor.

Donald only glares at him.

It surprises Leo when he grabs him by the arm. As he looks into his eyes - wearing that suit, knowing to what extent he’d go just to get what he wants, and seeing just how little he valued the lives of others, he realizes then that he doesn’t want to be like his father.

He doesn’t want to be a villain.

Before he could shake his hold, though, a surge of energy hits him. It overwhelms his brain for a long, agonizing second.

Then, everything fades to black.

– Ϟ –

“Leo!” Bree screams as The Incapacitator takes her little brother on his shoulder.

“Let him go!” Adam demands.

“You got the transponder already,” Donald says. “Let him go!”

The Incapacitator smirks. “I spared your kid,” he says. “This is only fair.”

“No!”

A neon green cloud swallows the supervillain and the teenager, and in a moment they are gone.

Bree feels as if her heart has fallen into a hole. She’s shaking with nervousness and adrenaline. Prompted by instinct, she staggers to her feet then comes to Chase’s side.

She checks his vitals, hoping for a beat, a breath, anything.

She sighs of relief when she feels a pulse. She tries to wake him, but to no avail. “Chase,” she persists, “you have to wake up.”

“Mr. Davenport…” Adam looks to their father as he sits beside her, the same look of urgency and loss on his face.

“He must have fried his whole infrastructure,” Donald says, rising to his feet. He shakes his head. “I don’t have the equipment here to fix it.”

“Chase…”

“Well, we can’t just let him die,” Adam protests.

“You don’t have to,” Oliver, now back up to his feet like Kaz, says. “Mighty Med. We have the equipment there. It’s a superhero hospital, and Kaz and I are doctors. We can help.”

Donald thinks it over a moment before nodding. “Okay. Adam, Bree, go with them. Make sure that Chase is okay,” he says. Then, to Oliver and Kaz he asks, “Please. Save my son.”

“We will,” Kaz says.

At that moment, Tecton flies into the room. He helps Gray Granite to the ground and asks, “Where’s Incapacitator?”

“Gone. He took the transponder with him,” Oliver reports. “Worse yet, he took their younger brother as hostage.”

“Hiding behind a child, huh?” Gamma Girl asks as she lands beside Gray Granite. The anger hidden under her unaffected expression is searing. “He must be desperate. He’s changed his MO.”

“I don’t like this,” says Tecton. “We need to find that kid.”

“I’ll call my brother and have him assist me,” Donald chimes in. “We can locate him faster if we have two sides searching. For the meantime…”

Oliver nods, taking out the wormhole transporter from his pocket. “We’ll do our best to get Chase back to you in good health.”

Donald nods appreciatively.

“Okay. Kaz? Everyone, hold on,” Oliver instructs.

Bree’s heart races as she holds onto Chase and Adam. They’ve dealt with many nightmares and many near-deaths before, but she doesn’t think she’ll ever get used to them.

What gets to her this time is the uncertainty of where Leo is and what’s going to happen to him. Is he hurt? Will he be okay? Will he be able to come home?

Her chest aches as she realizes that she couldn’t even protect her little brothers.

“Bree.” Adam nods. “It’ll be okay.”

As the five of them vanish into a wormhole, Bree wonders if it really will be.


	5. V: Late Bloomer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: disturbing imagery, death of loved ones, panic triggers

_Leo stirs, his whole body entirely too numb. He squints as his eyes sting from the flood of light shining all around him. He waits until the pain ebbs. Soon enough, he can make shapes, spot movements. But nothing is familiar._

_Nothing except the overlapping Ms on the wall – one scarlet and one chrome._

“ _Leo? Leo, are you okay?” a shape – then a couple of shapes – approaches him. “How are you feeling?”_

_He withdraws from the faceless figure even though he recognizes the voice. “Chase?”_

“ _Yes, Leo, it’s me,” the figure replies, but in Bree’s voice. He (she?) smiles. “You’ve been out a while. We’re glad you’re okay.”_

“ _Where are we?” he asks, still trying to see through the gray haze._

“ _We’re on Mighty Med. It’s a hospital for superheroes,” says Adam._

“ _I know that. I know what Mighty Med is,” Leo says. He sits up. He sees a vague outline of a hospital room… How come he still can’t see anyone’s face? It makes his heart thump. “Who are you? Why can’t I see you?”_

“ _The Incapacitator’s energy field must have been too much for you,” Chase replies. At least, it’s his voice._

“ _It’s going to be okay,” assures Bree. “The doctors said the blindness is temporary. In two days, you’ll be able to get your vision back.”_

_He searches their faces, still uneasy. The outlines of the shapes look like his siblings. There were four other people, although who they are he doesn’t know._

_Suddenly, a worry hits him. “Where’s The Incapacitator?”_

_Though he doesn’t see their faces, he senses relief. “It’s over, Leo,” says Chase._

“ _What’s over?”_

“ _Him. We defeated him!”_

“ _What?”_

“ _Yeah! He was holding you hostage,” says the figure that was Chase. Then, in Adam’s voice he adds, “It took us some time, but we figured out how to use his own power against him. Who knew it was that simple?”_

“ _Wait. No, no, wait. I don’t understand.” He shakes his head. “You’re not making any sense. Who are you?”_

“ _He’s dead, Leo. He imploded,” Bree says, a cold smile evident in her voice. “He died, as he should have.”_

“ _No. No, that’s not true!” He tries to leap out of the bed, but the shapes hold him down. “What are you doing? Let go of me!”_

“ _Why?”_

_Leo looks up quickly. He freezes upon seeing Krane towering over him, half of his body terribly burned just like the last time he saw him. A hole gapes at the place where his right eye should have been._

_Krane grins wolfishly, blood on his teeth. “Isn’t this your fault? You should have reported him a long time ago. Maybe he would still be alive if you had.”_

“ _We would still be alive,” S-1 agrees, appearing on the other side of him._

“ _You’re not quite the hero you think you are,” Krane says, his grip on his arm tightening._

_The shapes press in on him, robbing him of breathing space. “No – Stop!” he screams. “Get away from me!”_

_But they only converge, closer and closer and closer until the shapes merge into a tangible cloud that wraps around him. Soon, the cloud turns into water that he plunges under, and then he can’t breathe._

_He screams, but no sound comes out._

_He gasps for air—_

– Ϟ –

Leo wakes, gasping as if breaking through a surface. He defensively pulls his arm back from the person touching it, scooting away from him.

“Easy, Leo. It’s okay. You’re safe,” Joel says. “I won’t hurt you. It’s just me.”

Leo’s eyes quickly scan the room for danger. He’s in some bedroom, one he’s never seen before, and his father, wearing jeans and an ash gray t-shirt, is the only one there with him.

It all comes rushing back. Tecton, Chase, the energy lasso.

There was also the look of murder in his eyes as he grabbed him.

He retreats farther away from his father, afraid.

Joel chuckles. “Leo, I mean it. You’re—”

Leo flinches away from his touch, his heart calming but his brain still on high alert.

Joel sighs. “Right. I know. I overdid it. I’m sorry.”

“You were going to kill me.”

“I was never going to kill you. I would never. Why would I do that?”

Why would he? Leo doesn’t know. He used to think he understands why his father would do things, but now he doesn’t. “How could you lie to me?” he asks.

“Leo, you know I don’t like you being involved in the things that I do. Especially since you still stubbornly believe that there’s room for you in the superhero world.”

“But I am involved now. You hurt my family when I asked you not to!”

“I didn’t really hurt them! Everyone is still alive when we left.”

“You hurt Chase.”

“Well, the kid was kind of stupid.”

“He was still my brother!”

“Hey.” Joel points a finger at him. “Watch it. I don’t like your tone.”

The warning registers, but it does very little to allay his anger. “How could you do this? How could you hurt a lot of people like that?”

“Come on. It’s not like you don’t know that it’s just part of the job. They got in my way, I move them out.”

“But—”

“Leo, stop. Okay? Stop nagging me about this. It isn’t right,” Joel says patiently. “You know what I am. You know what I do. I understand why you’re mad, but everything I did was for a reason.”

Leo watches him indignantly as he gets up and heads towards a wardrobe. He simmers as he observes him dig through its contents.

It doesn’t make things any better when he comes back with a fresh set of clothes, smiling as if nothing happened.

His father observes him a moment before chuckling. “That must be some dream you had,” he comments. “I’ve never seen you this angry before.”

Leo says nothing and only looks away. He can’t stand his father at the moment.

“Since it seems like you won’t ask, this is the place I’ve been wanting to take you to,” Joel says. “It’s the house where I grew up. Nana’s and Pop’s house.”

Leo stubbornly keeps his mouth shut. Still, he’s moved to examine it closely. “I didn’t know it was still standing,” he mutters begrudgingly.

“Yeah,” Joel says, looking around the room fondly. “RT and I used to share this room, but when I turned 9, Nana moved Uncle RT to her sewing room downstairs.”

It’s fascinating that the childhood room of one of the most powerful supervillains in existence looks…normal. The room itself is small. Leo thinks it’s about the size of one of the sitting rooms in the Mission Creek mansion.

Pressed against the wall to his left is a study desk, a dust-covered stack of books, a decades old lamp, and a Duck Tales pencil holder sitting atop it. Right next to the study desk is the wardrobe. By the door is a shoe rack.

Everything looks so neat and normal that it’s almost disorienting. Sure, it’s obvious that not much had been touched for a long while, but he doubts that anyone would guess the kind of man the kid who used to sleep here would grow up to be.

“So, was I right? Were you having a bad dream?” his father asks. “You’re sweating like crazy.”

“Are we in Kansas?”

Though still a bit taken aback by his resistance, Joel answers. “Yeah.”

“Why did you take me with you? You didn’t need me.”

Joel shrugs. “Many reasons. Distraction, for one. Emotions run higher when there’s a hostage involve, especially when it’s a kid,” he says. “I know for sure it frazzles Tecton. That’s one of his weaknesses: his emotion tends to get the best of him in situations like this. He becomes more impulsive, more prone to make mistakes.”

“So you’re using me as a pawn.”

“I brought you here because I didn’t want to leave you behind with your new family.” He sighs. “Your stepdad is slipping. I want them to know how easily they could lose you. You’re valuable to me, Leo. I want them to feel the same fear I feel every day.”

Leo says nothing. He doesn’t know whether he should be grateful or frustrated that his father is once again stepping into his new life.

“You’re not going to tell me about your dream?” Joel prompts, smiling.

Leo stares at him, unsure. “I know you hate my new family, especially my stepdad, but you can’t keep doing this,” he says wearily. “What are we going to do if they find out that I’m your son? They’d think I’ve been in on it all along. It’s going to make a lot of things complicated.”

“Are you ashamed of me?”

“No, Dad, I never was! But after today, maybe I am.” Leo sighs. He hunches forward, gathering his thoughts. “This is putting me in a bad spot, too. I don’t want you to get hurt. I know you have your reasons why you do the things you do, and as we agreed on our deal I’m not going to interfere with anything unless it’s super bad.”

“But…?”

“But if I keep helping you, the superhero community might start viewing me as an enemy.”

“I only see that as an advantage.”

Leo only glares.

“Why do you insist on being one of them?” Joel asks. “You’re wasting so much of your time trying to earn their respect. You’re working three times as hard as your siblings, and they treat you like you don’t matter.”

“They don’t do that.”

“Yes. They do. You just don’t what to admit it.” Reading distress on his face, he says, “You’re a lot smarter than them. Take away your stepbrother’s bionic chip, and what is he? Just an average kid with an average level of intelligence.”

“But that doesn’t change the fact that—”

“That what? He creates things that work, that make money, and you don’t?” His father’s eyes have darkened, and Leo realizes that the smile was just a mask for the poisonous anger bubbling underneath. “Before you and your mother met them, you were heading towards great things. But look at what they did to you. They took everything from you. They took advantage of your loyalty, your sacrifice – and once they didn’t need you, they discarded you.”

“Please stop,” Leo mutters, the words hollowing out his heart.

Joel’s eyes soften when he realizes how it’s all hurting him. “I know the way I do things aren’t how you’d do them. But the world doesn’t look to me the way it does to you. It’s not a bright and warm place for people like us, my son. It just takes advantage of us and leaves us in the dark.”

When his son still won’t meet his eyes, he attempts a genuine smile. “I’m doing all of this for you. I don’t want you to experience the same things I’ve experienced. I know it may seem that I just want destruction, but really, what I want is a world where no one would take away anything from you.”

Leo knows what his father means; he knows the story. His dad and his uncle were only children, 10 and 7, respectively, when their parents were killed. They were able to get away from the murderers and hide in an abandoned house not far from here.

His grandfather had been close friends with a superhero at the time. They waited and waited for him, wishing that the man would show up and rescue their parents.

But the minutes only turned to hours, and hours turned to days. Even in the funeral, no superhero showed their face.

It was the day The Incapacitator was born. Injustices with no one to help only piled up, and the anger only increased until finally, everything he once was had turned into the man who sits in that room today.

Leo understands. Or, at least, he can sympathize. But why does it have to go this far? “You do know that if you drain the whole Earth of its energy, it’s possible that it would just implode in on itself,” he points out.

Joel laughs. “I just say that to spook the superheroes. You know them. They don’t do anything unless it involves drama.”

“You kidnapped me to prove a point. It’s not like you don’t.”

“I don’t. I prefer to be practical.”

“Practical? What if you get hurt?”

Joel shrugs. “Big game, big risks.”

“What if you die?” Leo asks, exasperated. “What if this is the one to end it all? You told me that your line of work is the one where people make you retire. Why would you put them in that position when you don’t have to?”

The expression on his father’s face changes. “I’m not going to explain anything to you.”

“I don’t need you to explain it to me. I don’t want to get involved in it.”

“Yes, you’ve made that very clear.”

Leo huffs. Why can’t he understand? “Dad, please. Don’t do this.”

“This is not your fight,” his father says decisively. “You’ve never wanted to be on the same side as me. I’m letting you. But don’t interfere with my plans.”

“It’s going to hurt a lot of people.”

“People die. That’s just what they do.”

“People? People like who, Nana and Pops?” Leo regrets the words as soon as they come out of his mouth. Horrifying still is the look of shock and hurt on his father’s face, turning the silence that ensues into something stinging.

He can kick himself. He _should_ kick himself. He should have never gone that far. “I’m sorry, Dad. That was a terrible thing to say,” he apologizes. “It was hard on you when you lost them. I’m not as young as you were, but I don’t want you to die either. No matter how many offenses the law has listed under your name and how much they’re offering people for your capture, you’re still my dad. My world will also fall apart if something happens to you.”

For a moment, Joel only glowers at him. Then, he scoffs. “I can’t believe you know that they have a bounty on my head.”

“Well, I have to find a way to pay for college,” Leo jokes cautiously.

Joel chuckles. He’s still notably upset, but it’s obvious the tactic has worked. “So was that what you were dreaming about? That I died?”

Leo nods. “I was in Mighty Med. They told me you were dead.”

A smile teases at Joel’s face. “That upset you?”

“Of course. Who would ever want to wake up in a world where their parents are gone?” Remembering more of the dream, his frown deepens. “Krane and S-1 were also there. They told me it’s my fault that you died.”

“Krane. I took care of him a long time ago.”

“I know. It was the first time I asked you for help.” Leo hesitates before pointing out, “You know, you didn’t have to go that far. You could have just overloaded them and shorted them out. You didn’t have to…”

“Eliminate them? Of course I did. He was going to hurt you. He also didn’t seem to be the kind of guy who stops after you fire a warning shot.”

“You do know that what you did technically counts as being a hero, right?”

“Hm.”

Leo smiles for the first time. “You know, if Uncle RT finds out you—”

“Don’t.” Joel directs a steely stare at him. “Don’t mention any of the three of them anymore. I don’t want to talk about the dead right now.”

The smile on his face wanes. “Okay.”

Joel nods at the set of clothes sitting on the feet of the bed. “Change into that. You’re gonna be here a while so you might as well be comfortable.”

“Wait. You’re gonna be staying in?”

“Like I said, I’m practical. The longer you’re gone, the more desperate they’ll be. It’s easier to work with desperate people.”

“Aren’t you worried that they’ll find us here?”

“How? I fried your phone while you were sleeping, you don’t have bionics that—”

“You fried what!”

“—can trace, we’re in the middle of nowhere—” Joel smiles as he walks out the room. “They’ve got nothing.”

Leo feels like his brain has shorted out from that one information. “How could you destroy my phone? I worked hard to get that paid off!”

“I can always get you a new one,” Joel calls from down the hall.

Leo groans. _That one was mine, though!_ “Why are you doing this to me?”

His father makes no reply.

Leo sighs, defeated. “You know, I feel like if I had superpowers, we’d be having a different conversation right now.”

His father slowly drifts to the door. “Why? Do you feel like you might?”

“I said _if_ ,” Leo says, irritated. “Let’s face it, Dad: I’m 17. Yours started showing up at 5. It’s time that we both accept that I’m a loser in that genetic department.”

“You know you’re not a loser,” says Joel. He shrugs. “You never know. Maybe you’re just a late bloomer. Maybe it’s just taking you longer.”

“Or maybe it’s really just not in me.”

“Could be trigger-based, too,” Joel muses. “Stress…”

“Had four years of that in high school.”

“Life or death situation?”

“Almost died five times, on my last count.”

Joel frowns thoughtfully. “Toxic waste?”

Leo deadpanned. “There ain’t _no way_ I’m going to let you drop me in a pool of one just to see.”

Joel watches him closely. “Do you want superpowers?”

“I don’t think it’d make a difference at this point. I mean, it’d be cool,” Leo admits, “but if I just don’t have it, I just don’t have it.”

Joel nods thoughtfully. “Well, let me know. We could make a bid for the Arcturion if it’s something you want.” He smirks. “I have a better chance at it than she does.”

“Wait,” Leo calls after his father. He swings his feet off the bed, and it’s then that he realizes he’s chained. “Dad, what is this? Why’d you bolt me to the floor?”

“In case they do find us here!”

Leo fiddles with the lock a moment but decides to abandon it for now. “What’s the Arcturion? What’s that?”

“Do you want to help me with this one device I’d been working on? I could never get the mechanics quite right. Maybe you’d have an idea on how to fix it.”

“Yeah, sure – but what’s the Arcturion?”

Joel only chuckles. _The real reason why I wanted this transponder,_ he thinks but as with all unspoken words Leo doesn’t hear it.

Not that he should. He has decided his son can’t know about it yet.

After all, it’s the true key for The Incapacitator to be the most powerful of them all.


	6. VI: And In Time These Things Shall Be Revealed

Tasha doesn’t think she can ever get used to this. She’s heading down the lab, right where Donald said he and Douglas will be, and just the act of standing still makes her feel like she will explode. Her husband didn’t give much information over the phone. All he said was that she needed to get back home, _something happened, Chase was hurt, and Leo was kidnapped._

Her mind keeps zeroing in on those things: Leo kidnapped, Chase hurt.

She feels like she would pass out with how lit her nerves are with these alarming developments.

She thinks she might be a bad person for thinking it, but she’s not as worried about Chase as she is with Leo. It’s probably because Donald said that Chase has been taken to some superhero hospital, a place where many are trained to treat the kind of injuries he sustained.

There’s some assurance that he’s in good hands.

But her baby. Her baby…

She marches into the lab as soon as the doors open. The whole floor is electric with activity and overwhelming worry. When she gets in, she finds her brother-in-law hunched over the cyberdesk, frowning as he’s lost in his own task.

Meanwhile, her husband looks at her from a conversation he’s having with a man who comes across as strikingly familiar. “Tasha,” says Donald, exhaustion heavy under his eyes. He smiles. “You’re here.”

“I came as fast as I can,” she says, eyeing the tall blond in the red suit.

“Tasha, this is Tecton. Tecton, this is my wife Tasha. Leo’s mother.”

Tecton nods, smiling. “How are you doing?”

Tasha only watches him. “I’ve seen you before. You look familiar.”

“Probably Leo’s comic books. He’s the same Tecton,” Donald explains. “He’s a superhero. Turns out, they’re all real.”

Tasha nods, still unconvinced. It’s then she notices the teenage girl in magenta. “Kylie, right? Or is it Kayla? Thunderstorm or something like that?”

“Close enough. I’m Skylar Storm, Mrs. Davenport,” Skylar says, holding out her hand. She frowns as Tasha shakes her hand. “You know who I am.”

A small smile breaks through Tasha’s features. “Leo got me one of those small plush toys of you from a comic con they went to last year. For my desk at work,” she admits. “He says he got you because you’re cool and cute.”

It stuns Skylar for a second before a grateful smile comes to her face.

“Do we have any news yet about Leo?” Tasha asks her husband.

“No,” says Donald. “We’ve tried several times to ping his location using his phone, but it’s not working. My suspicion is that it got fried when he was attacked.”

“He was _attacked_?”

Donald nods wearily. “A man came to the island pretending to be a representative, asking for the transponder. He found Chase, Chase led him to the transponder…” He sighs. “Chase shouldn’t have trusted him. The man had superpowers. He wreaked havoc in the island and hurt a lot of people. Plus, he stole my invention.”

“You’re going to have to stop blaming the kid, Donnie,” Douglas chimes in, still engaged in his hack. “If the security on the island had been tighter, he wouldn’t have been able to come in.”

“Chase should have known better than to let that guy in.”

“He’s 18.”

“Exactly! He’s 18!”

“Donald!” Tasha intervenes, fired up once again. “You can’t just blame everything on the kids every time! You have as much to do about this!”

Donald blinks, bewildered. “Why are you blaming me?”

“Because if you had put as much work into protecting the kids in the island, in protecting _Leo_ , as much as you’d protected Adam, Bree, and Chase from Krane? We wouldn’t be in this mess.”

“It wasn’t just my fault!”

“Does it really matter whose it is? Chase is in the hospital, and my son is missing,” Tasha heatedly points out. “What’s pointing fingers going to do to undo those things?”

She sees that her husband’s mind turns with more things to say, with things to justify himself with. However, exhaustion stops him from engaging in a fight.

That, and she thinks a small part of him agrees with her point.

It comes back to her then that they have company. She glances at them, sees the wary expression on their faces, and sighs. “I’m sorry. You shouldn’t have seen that,” she tells the two. “I’m just scared, that’s all.”

“It’s okay, Mrs. Davenport,” Skylar says. “It’s understandable.”

“How many hours since?”

“17 and a half, on my last count,” Douglas reports.

Tasha nods thoughtfully. They have just a little over 30 hours left—which feels like both long enough and too short a time.

“We’ve been doing our best to track the man who took him, too,” Tecton says. “Unfortunately, he hasn’t used his powers since we last saw him so there are no infrared trails to follow, but as soon as he does, we’ll be able to locate him.”

“What about that thing that he stole? Can’t you track that?”

“We tried,” says Douglas. He casts a loaded glance at his older brother before adding, “It’s a prototype, so it didn’t have any tracker on it. It hasn’t been used either. This guy is laying low for some reason.”

That only worsens the dread Tasha feels. She thinks about her son, thinks back on anything useful he could have told her, but nothing. She sighs, burying her face in her palms. “This guy,” she starts but doesn’t know if she has the strength to finish. “This guy, is he… Is he known for hurting children?”

Tecton and Skylar exchange glances, and Tasha feels like her heart has sunk. “We still don’t know why he took your son,” Tecton says. “If he sees use in him, it’s very likely that he will keep him alive.”

“Did he say anything why he took Leo?”

Skylar hesitates at first, looking at Donald for permission to continue.

“Say it.”

“He…He said because he didn’t kill Chase, Leo…was the payment.”

The breath in her lungs leaves her. She’s reminded of the time Krane took the two of them and used them to pressure her husband. This new enemy has what he needs from them; it doesn’t make much sense for him to do what he did. Does he need him to keep them at bay, to stop them from coming any closer?

Maybe that’s what it is. He’s using Leo as pawn.

Still, it devastates her that she has no way of making sure her child is alright. She wants to cry, because thoughts of how he is and how horribly his captor must be treating him are scaring her. “Who’s this guy? What do we know about him?”

“Not much. He goes by The Incapacitator,” Tecton answers. “His abilities are all energy-based. Before this moment, all he’d done is antagonize superheroes so we don’t know how he got his abilities.” A frown furrows his brows. “Although, there was a rumor going around that what happened to Victor Krane was his handiwork.”

Donald frowns. Even Douglas stops what he’s doing out of intrigue. “What do you mean it’s him?” Donald asks.

“The League caught wind about what happened, and we looked at the details of it,” Tecton shares. “From the autopsy report, it seems like both he and his top soldier were offed by energy blasts. Those burns… We’re still doing a follow-up, of course, but—”

“No, no. That was S-2. Those burns are from him,” Douglas says. However, he’s beginning to doubt it. “Leo told me that’s who he saw.”

“If he’d seen that Incapacitator guy before…” Donald’s frown slowly clears as a thought occurs to him.

That makes Tasha even more nervous. “What?”

“Leo. He didn’t look that scared when he saw him.”

“Wait. You think they know each other?” Skylar asks as Donald hurries over to the cyberdesk.

“I don’t know. But he didn’t seem too scared.”

“So, what, is this an inside job?” Tecton asks.

“Leo would never help a bad person do something wrong,” Tasha tells the superhero.

“No, no. He won’t,” Donald says. “He wasn’t scared, but he seemed very upset that he was there.” After a few clicks, the surveillance from the quarters comes up on the screen. He points at it as the interaction between Leo and the supervillain plays. “Look. He doesn’t feel the need to get away from him. Even when I told him to run, he didn’t.”

“He does seem really angry,” Skylar observes.

“And disappointed,” Tecton adds. He crosses his arms. “How do they know each other?”

“Incapacitator threatened to hurt me, but Leo asked him not to,” Donald explains as the video plays further. He sighs, putting his hands on his hips. “He did offer to open up the case just so the guy won’t burn my eye out.”

“Maybe he did it to protect you,” Skylar offers.

“Maybe.”

“No, but look – he tried to hurt Leo, too,” Douglas points. “Why would he do that if they’re working with each other?”

“Yeah.”

“It just doesn’t make sense. Leo’s a good kid. Why would he take part in a heist?”

“Has he been acting strangely lately?” Tecton asks. “It’s not beyond Incapacitator to manipulate others, especially a teenager.”

Donald sighs when the answer comes. “He’s been very upset with me these past few months,” he says. “He’s angry that I didn’t hire him on as a staff member for the bionic academy. He said he thinks he’s earned the right to be one.”

“Do you think he’d go as far as helping a supervillain just to get that point across?”

Donald thinks about it a moment. Then, he shakes his head. “He will complain and sulk, but he would never go that far.”

Tasha gasps at the surveillance.

Seeing that they’d gotten to the part of Leo’s abduction, Donald hurriedly pauses the video then minimizes it. “I’m sorry, Tasha,” he says contritely. “You shouldn’t have seen that.”

“No, no, no. That guy…” She frowns. “Put it back up. I want to see his face.”

Though confused, Donald does as she’s asked.

Tasha stares at the image for a few more seconds. Then, she feels as if her legs had lost strength.

“What?”

It’s been a while, but – is it really him? “Joel. That guy. His name is Joel Jones.” She looks at her husband. “He’s my ex-boyfriend.”

For a moment, Donald only stares. Then, he chuckles. “And I thought my dating history was terrible,” he comments. “Really, Tasha. I would have never pegged you to be the kind of person to date a man with superpowers. A terrible one at that. You could’ve done better.”

“Mm,” Douglas eyes Donald dryly. “The kids and I have always thought the same about you.”

“No, no, you don’t understand!” Tasha tells them. She huffs, feeling like her world is tilting upside down even more. “I didn’t know any of these things about him. When I met him, I thought he was just some college student from a nearby university.”

“He’s been an active supervillain since he was a teenager,” says Tecton.

“Well, I didn’t know that,” Tasha says defensively. She sighs. She should have listened to her mother. “If I had known that, I wouldn’t have gone out with him.”

Douglas shrugs. “I mean, you don’t have to go out with him now.”

Tasha glares. “Yeah,” she says, “but he has our son.”

“Wait,” Donald says. “What?”

“You mean…”

Tasha nods. “This Incapacitator,” she tells them. “He’s Leo’s father.”

The room lies motionless for a painfully long moment. Then: “The guy who broke into my island is your ex?!” Donald shatters the silence.

“I didn’t even know he’s still around! Everything was going well with our relationship. We were going to get married during spring break in Las Vegas, and then he vanished,” Tasha recounts, simmering. “I lost contact with him the same year, and he’s never shown up since.”

“But he knows you have a son together,” Tecton asks.

“I told him the night before the wedding,” Tasha says. “He looked shocked and conflicted, but I didn’t think much of it because I was nervous about the whole thing, too.”

“Maybe it was him that eliminated the two bionics, then,” Skylar says to Tecton. “He probably knew Leo was in danger, so he took them out.”

“But how could he know where we were then? We were hiding,” Douglas says. The answer hits him immediately. “He was on his phone that afternoon. I told him several times to put it away because we might get tracked—”

“So he does have contact with Incapacitator,” Tecton says.

“I mean, I didn’t know he’d put out a hit on him like that.”

“Leo would never do that,” Tasha defends her son. “Look. I know it seems like he’s in on these things that his father did, but he’s a good kid. I worked hard to raise him as a good person. He would never be involved in murder or robbery willingly like you’re suggesting!”

“We’re not saying that he is,” Donald says.

“Yes, you are! Donald, how could you—” Her shoulders fall as defeat presses on her heavier and her eyes sting. “How could you all even suggest that Leo’s a bad guy? My son has risked his life so many times to protect his siblings and to protect our family. Even when other people are mean to him, he stayed a good kid.”

She slowly collapses to the floor, Donald attempting to catch her by the arm. At that point, the tears come. “He just wants to help people,” she says, wiping them with the back of her hand. “How could you just turn on him like this?”

For a second time, the room lies motionless—only this time, it’s weighed with remorse and sympathy.

Donald sits beside her, putting an arm around her. “I’m sorry, Tasha,” he says gently. “It did seem that way. I’m sorry. Leo’s not a bad kid, I know he isn’t.”

“You know he’s willing to die for any of us. How could you even agree that he’s in on this?”

“I know. I’m sorry.” Donald looks up at their guests, back at his brother, and then says, “We’re going to find him. It’s important to me that we bring him home. I believe you. Leo made that deal to save me.”

“I apologize, too, Mrs. Davenport,” Tecton says, sitting down to meet her eyes. “I didn’t mean to make it sound like he assisted him. I got carried away.”

Tasha frowns at Tecton, still offended by the things he insinuated. However, instead of becoming angrier the longer she looks at his face, she finds that a faded memory only becomes clearer. “I _have_ seen you before.”

“Sorry?”

“Joel’s car. He was dropping me off after a date one night. When he stepped out, I looked through his glove compartment for a tissue, and—I saw a planner with your picture on it.”

“A planner?”

“It looked like a planner. There were dates in there, notes…” Tasha’s watery eyes narrow. “I remember seeing information about you and four other people. One of them even upset me. He has a picture of a blonde girl.”

“Blonde.” Tecton looks at Skylar. “Solar Flare?”

“He’s probably been keeping tabs on you guys since then,” Skylar suggests. “Isn’t it around that time that the League of Heroes was re-established?”

Tecton nods. “Is there anything else you remember, Mrs. Davenport?”

“Nothing much, except that he got upset when he saw I was looking through it.”

Tecton sighs. “That’s always been the way he operates. Most of the time, he tells us he’s still around by leaving destroyed sites or dead bodies. He’s very sneaky and really good at hiding.”

“So, what is he, some sort of superhero assassin?” Tasha asks.

Tecton shrugs, unsure himself.

“You guys were able to follow him to the island,” Donald notes.

“It’s because he struck somewhere else first.”

Donald nods, understanding. “One of my buildings.”

“He wanted that transponder.”

“There was something else,” says Tasha, lost in thought. “There was a picture of something. It was like a pyramid, with this marble-looking thing in the middle. That stayed on my mind awhile.”

“A pyramid?” Donald repeats.

Tasha nods.

Realization dawns on Skylar. “Oh no.” She looks at Tecton with dread. “The Arcturion.”

Tecton groans, getting up to his feet. “That power source has only ever been bad news.”

“What’s the Arcturion?” Douglas asks.

“Alien power source. Kills any human that touches it, drains any non-human of any abilities,” Skylar answers.

“Except this time he doesn’t have to touch it.” When others turn to him, Tecton says, “The energy transponder. He can draw infinite amounts of power with it. If he finds the Arcturion, he can transform into a living nightmare and actually turn earth into a graveyard for superheroes.”

“Great. Another guy bent on leveling all of us,” Skylar laments. “Once we get our hands on that Arcturion, we should really just football toss it into the sun.”

“That can be arranged.”

“I still don’t understand why he took Leo,” Douglas muses. “If all he needs is the transponder, why would he take him?”

Donald shrugs. “Spend some time?”

“Yeah, but why would he go as far as hurting him?” Douglas stares thoughtfully at the cyberdesk, his mind at work.

“What are you thinking?” Donald prompts.

“Something sinister,” Douglas says. He crosses his arms. “The good thing is, I don’t think he’s going to hurt the kid. The bad thing is, I think he’s going to hurt the kid.”

“What?” Tasha says.

“It’s all just suspicion for now, but I just don’t like the timing of everything,” Douglas says. “It’s mainly because of the transponder, but – everything’s aligned. I think this is the perfect moment he might have been waiting for.”

“Douglas, you’re the only one who’d been an evil genius here. None of us are following,” Donald says.

“Think about it,” Douglas says. “This guy had been waiting to bring down the superheroes for the longest time. He’s been collecting information regarding the top players in the business for as far back as, what, twenty or so years? But he’s never attacked. He’s also been keeping an eye on that, what is that, Arcturion?

“I think Tecton’s right. When he hits, he wants all the superheroes gone. He’s going big, and I think he’s going all out.”

“But like you said, Leo’s got nothing to do with this,” Tasha points out.

“Leo’s got _everything_ to do with this,” Douglas says. “There’s nothing scarier than a person who’s got nothing to lose. If that’s Incapacitator, if he’s the kind who’s willing to die for his cause, it’s likely that he’ll do everything to get it done. And between the kids and him…” He shrugs somberly. “The choice is obvious.

“Leo’s not a bad person, Tasha. I believe that,” Douglas continues. “But you’re right: he loves us. He loves his family.”

“Family, including his father,” Tecton supplies as he starts to understand.

“Ever since the academy was founded, he’s been feeling betrayed. If he’s been talking to his dad, then his dad knows how much everything upsets him,” Douglas tells Tasha.

He pauses for a moment, debating whether he should bring up the next point. “When...Marcus was still around, I gave him this one order, in case something happens to me while we were acting on our plan: get the job done, however way you can.”

Tasha’s frown clears. “You don’t mean…”

“There might be a lot more to your ex’s plan than we initially thought,” Douglas confirms. “If he succeeds, the superheroes are wiped out. If he fails and dies by the superheroes’ hands while Leo’s watching—”

“We might force Leo to follow his footsteps,” Skylar supplies.

Douglas nods in confirmation. “It’s like that question, one versus the many. Who do we save?”

“This is not good. I hope you’re wrong,” Tecton tells Douglas. “Reports are that The Incapacitator turned into a villain after his parents were killed in front of him.”

“You said yourself he was manipulative,” says Douglas. “We have to get Leo out of there before he can plant any bad ideas into his head, before anything goes down.”

Tasha lets out a shuddered breath. What upsets her more than the possibility of her son being emotionally manipulated is the fact that there’s a base for her ex to build on.

Douglas said he’s been feeling upset. How come she didn’t know? She frequently asked how he was doing whenever she called, and all he had ever said was that things were fine. Had her focus been so off that she didn’t recognize it? Her brother-in-law knows more about her child than she did. How did it get to that point?

“We’ll do our best to gather more information,” Tecton tells the family, getting back to his feet. “I’ll see if the League has something on Incapacitator. I’ll check the archives.”

“I’ll double check with Horace, too, and see if there’s anything he remembers hearing from people who’s encountered him,” Skylar says.

Donald nods. “Please update us as soon as you hear something.”

Tecton nods. “Mrs. Davenport, Mr. Davenport,” he nods to Tasha then Douglas. After Skylar does the same, both of them exit through the garage.

Once they’re gone, Tasha releases a weary breath.

“Are you okay? I know this isn’t something to come home to,” her husband asks her softly.

Tasha shakes her head. “I want to see the kids, Donald. I don’t like them being so far away from us. Where are they?”

“In Philadelphia, but I’ve fixed the Davenporter. It’s fully operational. If we head out to Davenport Industries now,” Donald consults his watch, “we’d be at the hospital in probably 40 minutes.”

“You guys should go. The kids need you,” Douglas agrees. “Adam texted me not too long ago, told me Chase hasn’t come to yet. I think he and Bree are getting a bit too shaken up by this.”

“What about the search?”

“What about it? I’m here,” Douglas says. As Donald helps Tasha up, he says, “There’s only one thing we can do on our end, and I can do it alone. Tasha, I know you don’t feel right about it, but I have to access the record of Leo’s text messages. His phone is out, but I might be able to ping his dad’s. All I need is a number.”

Douglas is right: she doesn’t feel right about it. If Leo finds out, he might think that none of them trusted him.

Still, it’s the only way to save him from his father right now. “Fine. Do whatever you need to do,” she says. “Just make sure Leo never finds out.”

“Evil genius here. I know how to cover my tracks,” Douglas says as he begins the work through the cyberdesk.

“You ready?” Donald asks.

“Wait. Maybe we should pack up some clothes for the children. Maybe bring some toiletries, too. Bree will only use one specific brand of toothbrush, and Chase needs his eye drops when he wakes up.”

An appreciative smile slowly stretches across Donald’s face. “I’ll get clothes for Adam and Chase, and you get Bree’s things and what you think the kids will also need.”

“We should pack up things for us, too.”

Donald nods.

“Meet you back here in 15?”

“Okay.”

At that, Tasha parts from her husband.

“Hey, honey?” Donald smiles when she looks back at him. “It’s all going to be okay. Chase and Leo will come home.”

Tasha only stares a while, processing everything. Then, she forces a smile to her face – a form of thanks.

Once he goes, she leaves for the elevator.

_It’s all going to be okay. Chase and Leo will come home,_ the words ring in her head.

However, only one thing echoes back: _Yes – but will they be the same?_


	7. VII: The Night of Infinite Hours, Side A

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: mentions death of loved ones, allusions to crime

Leo wonders if he should go out. It’s already late at night, about 10:49 PM, and the house lies in relative silence. _Relative_ , because he can still hear faint echoes of tools being used down in what he assumes is the garage.

On the one hand, he has a gauge on his father’s whereabouts. If the music of a man at work stops, then he can just hurry back into the room.

On the other hand, his father has the nose of a bloodhound when it comes to things not being right. He can teleport, too. In one second, he can be up there and…

Leo doesn’t know. Before today, he used to think that although his father will hurt many, he will never hurt him. He still thinks his father cares about his safety and that he loves him, but now that thought has all turned acrid and defiled. He doesn’t know anymore if he’ll just get yelled at, get a gentle reproof, or actually get hurt.

He shakes his head. Maybe not the last one. Besides today, his father’s never laid a hand on him once. His father did acknowledge that he overdid it. He will probably never do it again.

Finding that good enough, he leaves the room, the shackle on his ankle lying on the floor with the few hairpins he’d found scattered under the rug. He looks out the door – right, left – and then comes to the hallway.

He realizes then that he doesn’t really have a destination. Where can he go? He’s free and outside. There must be someplace he could go to.

Then again, his father never showed him around the house – at least not yet. He talked about a sewing room downstairs where his uncle used to sleep in. He assumes the kitchen is somewhere downstairs, too.

From the sound of it, the garage is farther away yet still connected to the house.

He cautiously peers over the banister to check for any movement down the stairs. Nothing. He hears a song from the 70’s (Motown, he thinks, which has been playing since late afternoon). There’s also still the sound of tools being used.

Finding it safe, he crosses quickly and sticks closer to the walls.

In his wandering, he finds a locked room, a closet, the bathroom, and another room he assumes is locked also. Out of curiosity, he tries it.

He startles a little when the knob clicks open.

After checking behind him for company, he sneaks inside. There’s a light switch, but he doesn’t think it smart to call that much attention to his presence there. Straining his eyes around the dark room, he notices light from the moon shining through the window that the curtain has left exposed.

He carefully closes the door behind him, wincing as it squeaks when leaving it partly ajar. Finding it still safe, he heads over to the window then pulls it open.

“Ugh…” Leo mutters quietly as he does his best not to cough. Dust rains down the floor, and the palpable scent of mildew and mold dominates the air.

Still, the night sheds a different picture of the room. Under the silver glow, Leo sees that he’s found a nursery-turned-library. There’s a big shelf displaying photographs and a variety of books: cookbooks, story books, fiction. There are even some notebooks wedged in here and there.

Right beside it is a crib, unused for so many years.

Across the room, close to the window is a rocking chair. Sitting right beside it is the smaller shelf, a bunny stuffed toy on top, guarding the storybooks packed within.

It’s then he sees a toy flashlight. He takes a chance, and under the light of the night he shakes it then switches it on.

For some reason, it works.

Leo grins, victorious. He doesn’t know how long the battery will last so he resumes snooping.

He checks the smaller bookshelf first. He almost chuckles reading the titles: _The Lorax_ by Dr. Seuss; _Frog and Toad are Friends_ ; _The Biggest House in the World_. It’s strange to imagine his father as a four year-old, sitting with his grandmother as she rocks the rocking chair, listening to her read a story to him.

He guesses it’s because it’s discordant, too - like the room. Peace versus war. Innocence versus knowing the world too much. It’s still hard to imagine that a quiet and normal life like that existed for his father before all of this.

Intrigued, he draws out _The Biggest House in the World._ It surprises him to see the name of the author: Leo Lionni. His mother told him that his father wasn’t present during his birth, and his father really didn’t appear in his life until he was six.

Still, he finds it a little funny that he shares the same name of the author who had some influence on his father’s childhood.

He opens the book up, intent to read, when he notices an odd spacing between the floorboards. It’s not very noticeable that he’s even surprised he caught it. It stands out, though, so much so that it presses on his curiosity until he can’t take it anymore.

So, he puts the book away then investigates.

Since the majority of it is stuck underneath, he carefully lifts the spinning shelf then moves it aside. He checks behind him for his dad, finds that the door is still as he’s left it, and then proceeds with his plan.

He sticks the nail on his right thumb in the slim space then attempts to lift it. It takes a couple of tries, but thankfully it’s loose enough that it eventually comes off.

When it does, he’s greeted by insulation foam, still firm but also yellowed with time. He pulls on it, unsatisfied.

It pays off. It comes with a soft tug and reveals a space as wide as a hand span and as deep as a hand span and a half. Tucked cozily within is a black safety box.

However, what wakes him up fully is the emblem on it: two Ms, one teal, one white.

_Mighty Med._

“What?” he whispers. The hinges give the softest of squeals when he opens it.

Its contents are underwhelming yet still intriguing. There are folded pieces of paper; a couple of cards that he assumes are credentials; some photographs; and a few pins that glint under the flashlight.

He picks up a card wedged inside a folded paper. The ID has considerably yellowed under the lamination, but the print is still legible. In fact, the picture on it has been left clear enough by time that he can still see how similar he looks to the man on it.

_Dr. Hezekiah Castle,_ the name on it says. _Chief_ _Neurologist._

The simpler but unmistakably similar symbol of Mighty Med pops out at him.

_Is this really Pops? I thought his name was Harold Jones? Was he a doctor at Mighty Med?_ Leo wonders. From his father’s stories, he’d always gotten the impression that his grandfather worked as a desk clerk in a local office. Never a doctor.

Now he wonders if what his father told him is just something he was made to believe.

Putting the ID back, he picks up a photograph next. It shows the same man, but this time there’s a woman with him. He’s hugging her from behind, both of them smiling brightly at the person taking the picture as they lean on the hood of a sea green Cadillac.

He turns it over and sees the note: _To my darling one – I love you, my love, with all my heart. You’ll forever be the ‘solstice’ of my life._

A frown furrows his brows. Solstice.

Why was that emphasized?

He pockets the picture, sure that his grandparents wouldn’t mind him keeping a picture of them as a young couple. He finds another ID in the box—but this one is sturdier, more proud and pronounced.

There isn’t a picture, just a name: _Doris Snow. NASA. West Area Computers._

The information that rushes in like riptide stuns Leo. He was told that his grandfather was an office worker, his grandmother a housewife who was beloved by many of their neighbors and friends. Now he’s finding out they weren’t who they seemed? That they were actually, respectively, a respected neurologist and a genius mathematician?

Voracious for more of their life, he leafs through the box for any other interesting finds. He finds a letter from his grandmother to his grandfather a few days after his father was born. He also finds an enamel pin that looked like a ricocheting shooting star.

He glances behind him, finds no one there, and decides he’ll look at one more paper before heading back. He picks up one, tucked underneath the pile, and opens it, expecting to find another handwritten memo.

His brows furrow as he sees the typewritten letter, which comes as a shock of crudeness after all the personal documents he’s seen. He skims it, expecting nothing.

Then, ice washes over him.

He shuts the letter close.

No. He didn’t read that. It kind of makes sense, but…

His brain buzzes. There are questions, puzzle pieces, and answers that fly around like a tornado in his head.

The words stick out: _proposal for a special unit; Doris Snow (codename: Solstice); for the benefit of earth._

_League of Heroes._

Incredulous, he opens the letter again and reads it closely.

He was right. He read it all correctly. It’s a letter of confirmation for potential recruits.

A letter of confirmation drafted by a superhero named Solstice.

Out of panic, he stuffs everything back in and closes the box. No. He can’t look at all of this right now. Does his father even know these exist? It’s buried under the floorboard, in a place only his grandparents would know to access. And his dad never mentioned any of this.

Did he not mention because he didn’t know? Or did he choose not to mention because he deviated from the trajectory of his whole family on purpose, and he didn’t want _him_ to know?

He does his best to remain steady, even putting the flashlight down to work faster. However, his grip on the floorboard isn’t as strong as he thinks.

It lands with a _thunk!_

He grimaces, hissing at his clumsiness, and continues his work in the dark. His father can’t know he’s here, can’t know what he knows. He places the board back on the slot successfully then lifts up the smaller, swiveling bookshelf back into its place.

By the time he sits back on the heels of his feet, his heart is beating so loud that it drowns every other sound.

He takes a moment to calm his nerves. Then, he picks up the flashlight, setting the snail storybook on his lap.

“How’d you get out?”

Leo gasps, spinning around. He finds his father standing at the door, light from downstairs flooding past his feet. His chest prickles at the fear. Has he seen him and the box?

Joel flicks the light switch on, and for a minute Leo doubts the anger he thinks he sees on his father’s face. Joel looks around the room, and then he smiles. “You found the library.”

“I…I-I was just…” But the words don’t come out of his mouth.

Joel sighs, the smile on his face unmoving. “If you wanted out of your room, you could have just told me.”

“Dad, you chained me to the floor and told me I was a hostage,” he points out, now indignant. “Hostages don’t get the option of requesting out.”

“Come on, Leo. You know your case is different. I would have let you go a bit if you wanted to look around the house.”

Leo resists the urge to glare. He doesn’t know if it’s because of the nerves or because he’s tired, but his father irritates him highly now.

“Hey.” Joel grins as he comes and sits beside him. “You found Uncle RT’s favorite storybook. You know, he used to ask your Nana to read that to him every night. And Nana always did, like it’s the first time she’s reading it to him. She’s so patient. We even had the French version of this. That’s why RT is so cocky. He thinks because he can speak French that he’s better than me.”

_Nana._ He turns his eyes down to the storybook and pretends to examine it. “Did Nana stay here with you and Uncle RT the whole time?” he ventures to ask.

“Mm-hm. Pops thought it was better for her to just stay with us and watch over us rather than go to work.”

“Like a housewife.”

“Yeah.”

He nods slowly, halfheartedly turning the page. “It would be nice if Mom did that, too. If she stayed home with me.”

“Well, she had to take care of you both. She didn’t…well, she didn’t have me like Nana had Pops.”

Leo looks at his father and stares thoughtfully. “If things were different – you know, if people weren’t evil, and Pops and Nana lived, and you still met Mom, would you…would you have married her?”

Joel chuckles humorlessly. “I know your mom probably hates my guts for running out on you both, but I knew neither of you would have normal lives with me in it. I’ve made many enemies; there’s no way any of them would leave you alone, or alive. That’s why I had to leave.”

“You didn’t answer my question.”

His father looks at him for a long moment. Then, he smiles. “I would have,” he says. “If I have to marry her every day just to make up for how I’ve hurt her, I will. But things are different now, and there’s no undoing what’s been done.”

“Shakespeare would be jealous of this tragedy.”

Joel smirks at his son. “I still can’t work out how you got out.”

“I’d tell you, but I might need to use the bathroom in the middle of the night, so…”

Joel laughs.

With the room freer of tension, confidence fills Leo more. Still, he knows to be cautious. He makes a show of looking around the room before commenting, “With how nice this room is, I would have pegged Nana to be an interior designer or a librarian. Or, unless Pops was the one to put everything together.”

“No, they worked on it together when they found out they were going to have me.”

“Did they…” He hesitates. Will it be too direct? “Did they know you and Uncle RT might have some abilities when you grow up?”

Joel searches his face, eyes lightly narrowing. “Why’d you ask?”

Leo shrugs nonchalantly, hoping his father isn’t hearing the klaxon going off in his head. “Because, you know, you were kind of trying to see if I had them, too, when I was still, like, six.”

Joel laughs, bringing Leo some relief. “I only did that because I had them when I was young. Genetically, it was possible I passed something to you.”

“Well, maybe it won’t skip Uncle RT’s kids like it did with me.”

“Oh, I doubt you’d have any cousins. At least on my side,” Joel says, distracted by the opened window now. “That’s what absent superheroes took from him: they took away my trust in them forever, they took away his desire to have kids of his own. He’s afraid of leaving them suddenly like Nana and Pops left us.”

“Nana and Pops weren’t superheroes.”

“No. They were super basic, and super boring.” His father’s smile grows as he thinks back on his parents fondly. “But they were my favorite. Now, come on. It’s late. You have to get to bed. We’ve got a big day tomorrow.”

Leo gets back to his feet, following his father’s lead. “Big day, like…?”

“You’ll see,” Joel cryptically responds, pulling the curtain back on the window with a smirk.

Leo watches him closely. Suddenly, the same dread he felt when Bree told him Chase was attacked looms in his gut again. It occurs to him then that one of the reasons his father took him there was to use him against the superheroes.

Will tomorrow have something to do with that?

“Leo?”

“Oh! Okay, yeah I’m coming,” he says, turning off the lights then closing the door on his way out.

His father eyes the storybook tucked between his arm and his hip. “You’re not going to ask me to read that to you, are you?” he jokes.

“I’m 17. I can read storybooks on my own now,” Leo returns playfully.

Twenty minutes later, his father is back downstairs at the garage to wrap up. Meanwhile, he sits on the bed, his feet free of any binds this time, and he stares at the book his uncle loved as a child.

However, despite the huge snail on the cover, all he can focus on is the picture of his grandparents that he hid behind the wall of the book.

Solstice. His father doesn’t seem to know about her or who she might have been. To Joel Jones, she was nonexistent.

To him, though, her identity is very much alive and sure. She was Mrs. Doris Jones to many in the neighborhood, a housewife who raised her boys while her husband went to work.

But in reality, she was a Mathematician who worked at NASA, who at one point in her life met a neurologist perhaps during her career as a superhero.

And it seems her oldest child is not fully aware that his abilities were something he inherited from her.

_All of us are hiding something,_ he tells his grandparents as they grin at him from the photograph.

Goosebumps creep up his forearms. _Secrets._

Now he wonders if their deaths were truly a result of a random act of crime.


	8. VIII: The Night of Infinite Hours, Side B

Tecton rubs his eyes, stinging now from staring at the twenty-foot screen of the League’s supercomputer. He doesn’t know why he’s doing this to himself. They’ve refreshed the radar four times already. If there was a change in result, it would have told him.

“You look terrible, Alex. You really should get some sleep.”

He looks up, only to find a mug of hot coffee being held in front of his face. “Thanks.”

“That’s not going to hold you up for long, though.”

_I know,_ Tecton thinks wearily. It’s turning out to be one of his longest patrol as of yet.

Sharp takes her seat beside him, her own cup of coffee nestled safely in her hand. “Might not be a bad idea to get some shut eye. You never know when Incapacitator will slip and show up.”

“That’s why I can’t go to sleep. I have to wait.”

His colleague looks at him a while, analyzing. Then, she leans back on her chair and smirks up to the screen. “I’ll give it about seven minutes of good fight time.”

“I’m fine.”

“You’re not.”

“Magda, please. Don’t do this. I’m already wiped as it is.”

The superhero smiles.

Tecton sighs. Nice. An admittance from him.

He can never win an argument with her.

“Geraldine has been down for almost three hours now. Gray Granite’s recharging, too,” Sharp comments as Tecton takes a cautious sip of his drink. “I can stay up for you, if you need. You know I’m used to pulling all-nighters now.”

Tecton smiles. “You’re not a prospect anymore. You don’t need to do scut work.”

“I’ve only been in the League for three months. I’ve still got a lot to prove.”

Tecton chuckles. “Congratulations, by the way.”

She only glances at him, a ghost of a smile on her face.

Silence settles between the two of them for the longest while. Tecton can’t decide whether it’s comfortable, strained, or a weird cross of both.

As he thinks of ways to fill the void, Sharp speaks again. “What do you think of the new prospects?”

The new prospects? It takes him a while. “You mean the kids?”

“Yeah. The twins. Shockwave...”

Tecton leans back on his seat, pensive. “They’re promising.”

Sharp scoffs. “Solar Flare isn’t here. You can trash talk them all you want – especially the blondes.”

Tecton laughs. “You do know you’re talking to one.”

“Please. This isn’t about you. I just mean those particular set of blondes.”

“You seem to feel very strongly about Quasar and Pulsar.”

“I feel very something about those girls, especially one of them.” Sharp looks at him. “I just want to know if I’m alone in this or if you feel the same thing, too.”

His brows furrow. “Like…?”

She holds his frown for a long moment, not once faltering in her gaze. When she sees he won’t be the first to surrender, she resumes her watch of the screen. “It’s a mistake to hire one of them,” she comments straight-faced.

He smirks. “Scarlet thought it was a mistake to hire you.”

“We both know why.”

At that, the smirk on his face shrinks. With so many problems in the world that they have to solve, he often forgets that problems also exist within their ranks.

He really shouldn’t be surprised. After all, they’re still human too – just like the people they save. “Magda - “

“I’m getting a bad feeling from them,” Sharp cuts him off. “One of them is two-faced. At the moment, I just can’t pinpoint who.”

“Is this because of what you found on the log from the training center?”

Sharp says nothing, but it’s obvious that the answer is yes.

Tecton takes a deep breath. It’s an issue that Gamma Girl and Spotlight had also asked him to look into. Since Sharp brought to their attention the fishy activities of the twin teenage girls, she and Solar Flare had been at odds with each other.

Scarlet will defend her mentees to the death, and Magda won’t back down on her stand regarding the trainees.

Remembrance of that causes his shoulders to feel heavier.

“Forget it,” Sharp says, her features distant and pragmatic now. “Have you told the boy’s parents what needs to happen after he gets home?”

His brain sputters once again. When it clears, though, he finds that he’s once again staring at another problem. “No,” he says. “I haven’t.”

“Can I do it?”

He sighs for what feels like the hundredth time that night. “No, I’ll—”

“Alex. You know you don’t have to do everything that needs to be done under the sun,” Sharp reproves. “That’s why you have us. We’re a team. You have to divide the load. That’s why you’re looking a lot older lately. You take so much of what you shouldn’t.”

He stares at her. “I look old.”

“Yes.”

“Lately.”

“Sí.” She grins at the screen. “Muy viejo.”

He chuckles humorlessly. There are so many things he want to say: he takes on so much because he has to; he takes on so much because he needs to. He takes on so much because the world needs him, and he takes on so much because that’s what he needs to do with his gifts.

But then, Sharp looks at him with a soft, warm smile and says, “You’re not alone, you know” – and all of those thoughts cease.

“I know,” he acquiesces.

Sharp nods. She takes another sip of her coffee.

“The program seems to be very important to you.”

“We’re giving children the care they need, and we’re giving them a second chance. What’s not to like about it?”

He smiles. “You know, half the League is still not comfortable about you eyeing Katrina Lee as your sidekick.”

“Trainee,” she corrects. “Are you not comfortable about it?”

Tecton thinks about it. He shakes his head. “No, I am,” he says. “The things her father did are not the same things she’s doing.”

“Mm, I believe that, too. Plus, Dr. Farrow says she’s been doing well and comes to all their appointments.” Sharp shoots a smirk his way. “Kat is a smart girl, very promising. It won’t be fair if she’s just forever known as Megahertz’ daughter.”

Tecton agrees. He thinks about the program, thinks about the two girls currently being helped. He also thinks about The Incapacitator, his negative opinion of superheroes, and then his son. “I want to tell them,” he says.

“Tell...who?”

“The Davenports,” he says. “I know we can’t change the minds of all supervillains, but maybe we can try again with another one. Incapacitator became who he is because no one came to help his family when they needed help. But maybe, if we take care of his son, maybe that would change his opinion of us.”

“I don’t know. That may be a bit of a long shot,” Sharp says. Still, she smiles at him. “It’s a pretty good idea, though.”

“Worth the shot, right?”

“Always.”

Tecton smiles down at his coffee, thrilled at the ray of light the action might shed on the world.

“Still, that’s cheating. You’re still not dividing responsibilities.”

He grins. “Alright, how about this? How about I go to sleep, so you’ll stop nagging me, and then I tell the parents about the program?”

“Sounds great. Your face is making me feel sleepy anyway.”

Tecton scoffs, getting on his feet. “I’m still the leader of the league, you know.”

She leans her head back to look at him. “Yeah. Your eye bags totally scream authority.”

Tecton can’t help but laugh. The other members of the league rarely crack jokes, and he’d say the relationship between all of them is more business than a real friendship.

Secretly, he likes having someone who pushes against the norm. “Thanks, Sharp.”

“You’re welcome, Tecton.”

At that end of the conversation, Tecton leaves.

A soft trill from the supercomputer stops him in his tracks. “Uh oh,” Sharp says. “Hold up on that sleep, Blondie. Alley Cat just sent us a message.”

“What does it say?”

“Watchdog tip. Junction City, Kansas. Seems like there’s some villains on the way to this one house.” Finding him reading beside her, she frowns. “What’d you ask me to read it for? You’re right here!”

Tecton switches from the message to the general energy anomaly register radar. There, they see two dots coming in towards their target destination. “This isn’t good,” he says. “Civilian neighborhood. We can be looking at casualties.”

“I’ll wake up Geraldine and Gray Granite.”

“I’ll contact Blue Tornado.”

“Alex,” Sharp calls after him as he speeds out.

He stops, spins around. “What?”

She gives him an impatient look. “Two on the radar, but there may be more,” she says kindly. “You’re tired. You can’t get in a rumble in your condition.”

“I’m fine.”

“The people in that house,” she reasons, “they can get hurt if you’re not in tiptop shape.”

Tecton pauses. She’s right. As much as she joked, he knows her estimate of there being only seven minutes of good fight is accurate. He’s tired, and in a rumble exhaustion is a weapon that the opposing team can use.

Once again, she wins the argument. “I’ll go as backup.”

“Alex.”

“I promise,” he nods, his feet already taking him towards the action. “Message us if something comes up on Incapacitator!”

Inside the Core, Magda only slumps to her seat, dreading what the unheeded warning might bring.


	9. IX: Tout Se Passera Bien

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So, full disclosure: this is an incomplete chapter. It's not because it wasn't finished; the draft is very much done. The only thing is that what's been cut out contains a higher level of violence that I had anticipated - and I'm not comfortable delivering something I didn't caution you all about. 
> 
> I know you're all very understanding, so thank you in advance. Anything that you miss here will be filled in on the future chapters. 
> 
> Thanks for understanding and the interest :)
> 
> TW: mentions of mental illness, some violence, peril

The darkness speaks in various voices. Leo doesn’t really understand what it’s saying—or, really, what the people in it are saying—but he doesn’t mind. The voices sound so happy. He thinks he can listen to them all day long.

It takes a couple of minutes before he hears one of the voices get closer. It’s a woman, older. Her tone is warm and inviting, happy like the others.

The intonation tells him that she’s asking a question, He doesn’t think it’s directed at him, but he’s inclined to answer anyway.

When her voice gets closer, a part of him withdraws from the pictureless dream. He still remembers the dream about Mighty Med and Krane.

He doesn’t like the feeling that someone faceless has come close to him again.

_Don’t take this personally._

His brows softly furrow. These voices…They’re the same ones he heard when he was younger. He still hears them sometimes, but he doesn’t tell his family. His mother gets worried and talks about seeing brain doctors, and he’s sure his new family will make fun of him if he goes.

His stepfather already thinks it’s ridiculous that he hears voices. Adam will call him crazy if he finds out about it, and Chase…

He doesn’t know what Chase will say.

Bree might be the only one who would show understanding, he thinks.

Still, he doesn’t want to be the crazy one. He doesn’t want to be crazy and a burden for everyone.

_It’s not my favorite part either._

Suddenly, the voice isn’t the woman’s anymore. Now, it’s a man’s.

He stirs. The void isn’t as dark anymore. It’s taken on a confusing shape that becomes more definite by the second. He slowly turns on where he lies, looks around.

Then, he sees the tall and menacing silhouette towering over him, holding a dagger above.

Instinctively, Leo barrels to the opposite edge of the bed as the blade comes down. The steel hits the mattress and gets stuck, giving him time to get up and jump out through the foot of the bed.

He falls with a loud thud, but any pain from it is dulled by the tide of adrenaline that suddenly swallows him whole.

He spins on the floor and finds a man in a black leather jacket still struggling with the dagger.

The man looks at him and grins wolfishly. “Good instincts,” he commends, the coldness of his voice sending ice through Leo’s skin.

Leo scoots quickly back towards the door when the man lets go of the hilt. He hustles to increase their distance—but all efforts are stopped by the wall behind him.

“Shh…” the man hushes, bringing his index finger up to his lips. “We don’t want to wake anyone, do we?”

 _Who are you?_ Leo wants to ask, but he finds that his mouth has run dry.

The man runs like a shadow toward him. Then, he squats down to meet Leo’s eyes.

Leo freezes.

The man’s eyes are the eyes of a snake.

“If you tell me where the energy transponder is,” he hisses, grinning superciliously, “I’ll take you for ice cream.”

Leo leans away from him as he smells the venom from his breath.

**

His father stares at him, horrified – but only for a moment. Soon, the familiar dark and sinister look comes over his face. He gathers what little energy he can from his surroundings then uses the force built up to pull his arm lose.

The sludge breaks like dry cement.

Leo grabs his ankle after Joel quickly gets up to his feet. “Dad—” He winces as another wave of pain hits him. “Dad, where are you going? The – the heroes are here. We have to go.”

For the longest, he only sees wrath and revenge in his father’s eyes.

But then, his father’s gaze softens.

He kneels down, quickly runs a hand through his hair, and then kisses him on the forehead. “I love you,” he says, smiling. “Everything will be okay.” He pulls his son’s hand off his ankle and then vanishes through the obliterated walkway.

“Dad – agh!” Leo curls as his side throbs even more. Still, the thought that his father is walking into trouble cues his brain to numb the pain a little so he can get up.

Getting on all fours feels as if it’s taking hours to accomplish. His breath is jagged, heavily dependent on what amount of breathing hurts less. Still, he continues to push himself until he’s leaning on what’s left of the wall.

It’s quieter downstairs compared to earlier, but he still checks the hall for their unwelcome visitors. A glance tells him that the front of his grandparents’ house is all gone and that the fight is now outside.

There’s still trouble downstairs, but the white flashes of light tells him that his father isn’t involved.

He quickly assesses the situation. Outside through the front is not safe. Downstairs towards the kitchen (he estimates from the clanking sounds) is not safe.

The stairwell is risky.

_How am I going to get out?_

The silver spotlight from the night outside calls to him. The only safe way out might be through the window ahead, but he can’t know for sure if he doesn’t check.

He takes a step towards it but stops.

The safety box. The heroes need to know who his father really is. If he can’t help him through this ambush, he can at least plead for his case later on.

He cases the hall to the stairwell again and finds no movement. If he’s quick, he can get the safety box in three minutes while everyone is distracted.

He knows it’s stupid and risky and could very well lead him to his death, but he does it anyway. He runs through the hall, thankful that Slither wasn’t waiting in the darkness of his father’s old room or that Sonic Shriek isn’t in the house anymore.

He gets inside the nursery-turned-library then shuts the door behind him. He releases a breath he didn’t know he was holding.

Then, he pulls the curtains down for some light and rushes over to the small rotating bookshelf.

Adrenaline takes over. He pushes it out of the way, causing the stuffed bunny to fall over to the side. He grabs the floorboard and fails a few times but eventually succeeds.

He rips the insulation off unceremoniously. Seeing the box, he pulls it out of its hiding place and takes it into his arm.

His breath catches when he hears slow, searching footfalls outside.

The realization that it’s getting closer paralyzes him for a few seconds. Then, instinct gained from the missions with his step-siblings kicks him into action.

His eyes immediately turns to the bigger bookshelf. Against the more seasoned criminals of the gifted world, he can’t defend himself that much. However, the element of surprise gives him a better chance.

So, he hides in the niche created by the side of the sizable furniture and the wall.

The person stops outside right outside the door.

Then, after a few, agonizing moments, the person twists the doorknob open.

Leo holds his breath, the safety box pulled up against him like a bat.

The person walks in. _Thump...Thump..._ his trails warn.

Leo’s heart races, causing his vision to narrow.

His shadow tells Leo a few things. Taller than the man in the suit. Bulkier than Slither.

It’s either Sonic Shriek or the man who set up the fireworks in his grandparents’ basement.

The person stops—right by the bookshelf.

One swing, that’s all he has.

Leo wishes he can vanish into nothing.

So, putting whatever strength he has left on his arms, he takes a step and swings the safety against the shadow.

The person catches him by the arm, its movement faster.

“Let me go!” Leo growls as he struggles against vice-like grip.

There’s a pause. Then: “Leo?”

The familiar voice stops him. His vision clears little by little until soon, he recognizes the familiar face.

Tecton lets him go. He frowns. “I...I don’t understand. Why are you here?” he asks. “The watchdog tip is for an ambush.”

Leo sighs a breath of relief. _Tecton. It’s just Tecton._ “They’re all here for the transponder,” he answers, his heart still hammering wildly in his chest. “Apparently there’s a notice out that the villains can find it here.”

“But…” An uncertain and unreadable expression furrows Tecton’s face deeper. He shakes it off. “We’ll talk about it later. Right now, we have to get you to Mighty Med.”

“Where’s my dad?” Leo asks as the superhero leads him out the door.

Tecton freezes.

Leo realizes that he slipped. His mind tries to rationalize for a moment that it might not be too bad; maybe Tecton would think that he’s just looking for his stepfather.

But then, he turns around. a sympathetic look in his eyes. “He left. He got Ambusher and Slither off Blue Tornado, and then he left,” Tecton says. Seeing the fear in the teenager’s eyes, he kindly albeit urgently says, “I’ll explain everything later. Right now, just come back with us to Mighty Med.”

 _They know. They know?_ Paralyzed by that thought and moved by the sense of mortal danger hanging about the house, Leo follows the superhero robotically. He does what he’s told, keeps his eyes peeled as they make their way out.

He settles in the compact aircraft obediently when he’s told to do so.

 _They know,_ he keeps telling himself. _They know._

He doesn’t know why, but he feels like his life has changed tonight.


	10. X: Castle in the Sky

Leo watches quietly as Horace listens to his breathing with the stethoscope. The instrument is cold against his skin, but he does his best not to flinch. One wrong move, and the pain in his ribs can double.

“Well, your lungs seem like it’s working okay,” Horace says, taking off the apparatus and draping it back on his neck. He stares indecisively at the nasty bruise beginning to form on his patient’s skin. “Of course, we’re going to have to transfer you to the hospital outside. We have x-rays here, but not really for humans.”

“Okay.”

“Hm.”

Leo sits up and observes the doctor as he leaves the room. So far, so good. He had thought on his way there that glares would rain down on him since everyone apparently knows now that he’s the son of a supervillain. However, the people he had talked to since getting there have treated him like a normal person.

In fact, besides the look Tecton gave him earlier, the nurses and Dr. Diaz had been kind of apathetic while dealing with him.

It’s as if he was just another patient.

When Horace comes back, wheeling in a wheel chair, a thought pops up in Leo’s head.

“One of the nurses has gone off to alert your family of you being here,” Horace says. He blinks back the sleep stinging his eyes, rubs it off, then adds, “It’s probably best if they don’t see you until after the examinations. They’ve been kind of frantic. Don’t want them squeezing you, what with your seemingly broken ribs and everything.”

“Um – “

“They’re probably going to have to meet you at the other hospital, though. We have x-rays here, but not really for humans.” He frowns. “Did I already say that?”

“Dr. Diaz.”

“Huh?”

“Can I ask you a question?”

Horace sighs, his shoulders dropping dramatically. “Is it going to take all night? Because my shift ended two hours ago.”

“How long have you been here?”

Horace consults his watch. “Probably going on 36 hours.”

“No, no – I mean, how long have you been working at Mighty Med?”

Horace’s features furrow as he contemplates on it. “Probably since the hospital was first built, long before you were even born,” he answers. “Why?”

“So, you know a lot of the people who’s worked here. Right?”

Horace eyes him suspiciously now – a glimpse of Leo’s expectation from earlier. “We may not be like a regular hospital,” he says, “but protecting the patients’ and employees’ identities is still a responsibility that I don’t take lightly as chief of staff.”

Leo nods. “Good,” he says. He then hops off the examination table, but instead of sitting on the wheelchair, he limps past Horace to retrieve the black safety box.

With the chief’s eyes on him, Leo shows him the emblem on it.

Horace frowns at it. Then, the expression clears. “What is this?” He closes the door behind him and asks, “Where did you get this?”

“So I can count on you to keep a secret,” Leo says, wincing as he climbs back on the examination table.

“Those safety boxes were issued only to chief of departments some decades ago,” Horace says. “ _Where_ did you find this?”

Leo doesn’t reply. Instead, he opens the box, finds the ID, and then hands it to the doctor.

Horace takes it. A look of shock and sorrow rises to his face after reading it.

“Do you know him?”

“Where did you get this?” Horace asks.

Leo notes the coldness of his tone and the sharpness in his gaze. “I found it by accident,” he says, holding back for now just in case. “I saw the emblem and figured I should ask someone who’s worked here a long time. It says Dr. Castle was a neurologist here. Is that true?”

For a long while, Horace only stares at the card. Then, he smiles sadly to himself. “Hezekiah was my best friend. He had the craziest ideas, but he was a good person. He loved helping people. He was a people person.”

“Did he have a family?” Upon Horace’s glance, Leo says, “This isn’t information that my father will be interested in, I promise. And even if it is, I think I proved already that I can keep secrets – from heroes _or_ villains.”

Horace considers it. “You said ‘did,’” he points out. “There’s a reason for the past tense, isn’t there?”

Leo’s eyes give the answer.

Horace sighs, disheartened. “His family was originally from Tennessee. His parents worked hard to put him through school, but then his mother got sick a year before he graduated. Died right after. His father got to see him become a doctor, but years of working in a factory with poisonous chemicals took a toll on him. He died after Kai’s 26th birthday.”

“He lost his parents young.”

“He did. He didn’t have any siblings, so Mighty Med was his family.” Horace smiles. “Like I said, Kai was my best friend. We drove each other crazy, but he was a brother to me.”

“Why doesn’t he work here anymore?”

Again, Horace pauses contemplatively.

“Who’s Solstice?” Leo asks, hoping to encourage the conversation forward.

Horace frowns. “Who’s Solstice?”

“Female superhero. You haven’t heard of her?”

Horace shakes his head, curious. “No.”

Leo sighs—causing a powerful pang of pain to knife through his insides.

It snaps Horace awake. “Uh, we probably should – ”

“I’m fine,” Leo lies, holding his hand up. Answers are more important right now. “I’m fine.”

“Uh, I’m the doctor here,” Horace says. “You are not.”

“Please, Dr. Diaz. I need to know more about Dr. Castle and Doris Snow.”

“Doris Snow?” Horace’s eyes narrow as he thinks. “Why does that name sound familiar?”

Despite the limitation imposed on him by the broken ribs (and probably broken many other things), Leo gingerly opens the box to search for the document. “Originally, she was a mathematician at NASA,” he says for the meantime. “Then she became a superhero.”

“NASA?”

“Yeah?”

It stumps the doctor for a while. Then, an incredulous laugh escapes him. “That crazy guy…”

“I’m sorry?”

“NASA, you said?” Horace laughs, shaking his head. “I knew it. I knew he would fall for something like this.”

“Something like what?”

Horace lets out a breath, amused. “That’s why he stopped working here,” he answers. “He had just been appointed as head of the neurology department when a case came up. Hopefully I can talk a bit about this now, but from what I know, there was an accident involving a mysterious alien artifact exploding at a remote facility.

“Different experts were called in; NASA, too, unsurprisingly. The government wanted to know what it was that the Air Force found. They were examining it. Next thing they know – boom!”

“It…exploded?”

“Yeah. Rumor is that something in the test caused it to do that.” Horace’s eyes narrow. “Something was up with it, because we had an influx of reports of people acting strangely, people going missing. People acting strangely _and_ going missing—”

“NASA employees?”

“Almost everyone who was in that building, not just people from NASA,” Horace says. He frowns thoughtfully at Leo. “I can check the files of the ones who came here before, but I don’t remember a Doris Snow. The name sounds familiar, but not as a superhero’s alter ego.”

“The League won’t have anything on her, would they? They probably weren’t even established when these accidents happened.”

“Huh. You know more than a regular kid from California should know,” Horace notes. “I’m suspicious.”

Leo hands him the draft letter. “I think the gap in the time between the first documented proposal for the establishment of League of Heroes and the actual date it’s established gives _me_ more reason to be suspicious.”

Horace reads. “This…” He shakes his head. “This can’t be real. The League was established in the mid-90s. It was proposed by Dr. Sebastian Kline.” He hands the letter back to Leo. “I was there when it happened. It can’t have been by her.”

 _Sebastian Kline._ It’s the first name he’s gotten in regards to his grandparents. Leo wonders if it’s a name his father knows too. “You said Dr. Castle left because of what happened with the alien artifact,” he prompts.

“Yeah, but I can’t tell you exactly why _he_ left. It’s top secret.”

Leo stares at him. “Fine,” he hops off the table when the doctor won’t give. He sits on the wheelchair. “I’ll just wait until Tecton sees me again. I’ll ask him.”

“Okay, wait.” The decision tears Horace apart, but it’s evident even to Leo that the temptation of knowledge has become too irresistible. “Ugh, I can’t tell you this. It’s too dangerous.”

“My dad and I just got caught in a crossfire. _Nothing_ in my life right now is not dangerous.”

“No. You don’t understand.” Horace walks on over to the examination table, leans on it as he decides. “I can’t tell you. I want to, kid, but I can’t. Like I said, I have to protect my employees and my patients. If even the little that I know gets out, we can be looking at something catastrophic.”

“But it’s been decades since.”

“Don’t underestimate how long evil can linger,” Horace cautions.

Leo wants to press for more, but somehow he understands. There’s something bigger at play, something that his father understands and Dr. Diaz doesn’t know he hold pieces of. More and more, it becomes clear that his grandparents’ deaths may be more than just a random act of violence.

_Grandparents._

Leo fishes for the photograph from his back pocket and is relieved when he finds it still there. He takes it out, unfolds it, and smiles at them. Then, he gives it to Horace. “He married her, you know. Solstice,” he tells him.

A smile comes up to Horace’s lips as he looks at his best friend and his wife. “She’s pretty.”

“She is. Their kids don’t know what I know about them, though, so I’m kind of hoping we can keep this a secret.”

“Kids?”

“Two sons. Men now, actually,” Leo says, taking the picture back.

There’s a knock on the door. “Dr. Diaz, they’re waiting for him outside,” Philip says, peeking in. “I’ve told the Davenports. They said they’ll be making their way there.”

Horace nods, disoriented.

“Did you want me to cart him out for you?”

“No, no. I – Yes, but give us just one second.”

Philip nods, confused. He takes his leave and closes the door.

“Where are his kids?” Horace asks quietly. “Are they alive? Do you know where they are?”

Leo chuckles. “They’re no stranger to you, Dr. Diaz.”

“They’re...?”

The grin on his face shrinks. “You’ve probably been hearing about their oldest all shift long,” he says. “The Incapacitator. Joel Jones – Castle, actually. My dad is Dr. Castle’s son.”

The door opens again. “Dr. Diaz, I’m so sorry, but we really have to take him out there,” Philip says, grabbing the handles of the wheelchair. “The nurse said they’re pretty swamped, and if they don’t take him in within the next five minutes, the kid will have to wait for a few hours for a check-up.”

Horace nods numbly, his mind swimming with the new information. “Okay,” he says. “Okay.”

It dismays Leo that he didn’t get any more information. Still, the thought that he’s met someone who was another important part in his grandfather’s life makes him smile. “Thank you, Dr. Diaz,” he says as the nurse carefully turns his wheelchair around.

Horace grabs the armrest of the chair before they get out the door. He hesitates a moment. “Can you tell me more about what happened to him?” he asks. “Your grandfather?”

Leo nods. “After we both get a decent amount of sleep,” he promises.

Horace nods. He doesn’t seem to want to let go, questions about his best friend anchoring his fingers in place, but eventually his grip loosens.

Leo gives him a smile before he completely vanishes from view. It gives him some hope knowing that his grandfather is important to someone who’s in a position of power. Maybe that can keep the superheroes off ending The Incapacitator. Maybe they can arrest him without hurting him.

He looks down at the picture of his grandparents, grinning at him.

Maybe the world isn’t such a hopeless place after all.


	11. XI: The View From the Top

Joel has heard that there are two ways to experience Paris: as a welcomed guest or a bothersome nuisance – both dependent on how French people in the city see the person. He’s reminded of this as he looks out into the Seine, the buildings beneath as small as Lego blocks and the people as pathetic as gnats.

His son has asked him if he would have married the woman he once loved if he had the chance. He smiles. The answer is still the same: yes. If he had been like other men back then, so young and so crazy in love, he doesn’t doubt he would have taken Tasha here.

It’s so iconic. The city of love, with its romantic structures and quaint little shops. Cafés that people fall head over heels for.

Streets that smell like urine. Waiters that show extreme prejudice.

Doors shut so tight on people like him, the love of his life, and their son.

He leans onto the railing, the thrill and fear of possibly falling from so far up crawling through his veins. He breathes in the summer air, so thin and different up there close to the clouds.

Then, he closes his eyes.

The calm escapes him as he remembers what happened at his parents’ house. With that attack, the house is probably all but gone now. It fills him with anger that someone has taken even the place where his good memories are kept - but he files it away instead of feels it.

They will be made to regret. They will all be made to regret it soon.

Another wave comes in, this time as he remembers his nightmare coming to life several times: Slither cornering his son, Sonic Shriek’s attack resulting in Leo breaking and bleeding.

His eyes open, filled with fire that cannot be tamed.

Leo is not like him. Leo is like his grandmother, both of them like the wind. He’s comforting, soothing. Unpredictable but measured. Mostly gentle and easygoing.

Destructive if stirred the wrong way – but they’ve never gone to that point.

Joel used to be like his mother, too. RT said so several times.

However, things are different now. The wind that he probably was had been stirred over and over again, in fire and in forces as chilling and unforgiving as the deathly cold and devastating heat of space. The years after his parents’ deaths have continued to move and coalesce and form so much weight that it dragged him to the depths of obscurity.

He is not like the wind like RT said, no. If he had been like the wind, he would be more cautious – play everything as he planned from the beginning.

But he won’t, because he’s different.

He is a rogue star – one that acts and moves with no regard.

And tonight, he will burn life on Earth as everyone knows it.


	12. XII: Blank

“Leo!”

Leo steps back as Bree and Adam excitedly come in for a hug. He holds his hands out, hoping to slow them down.

Thankfully, they heed his warning and slow to a puzzled stop. “Broken ribs. It still kind of hurts,” he tells them.

“So, no hugs?” Adam asks sadly.

“Yes hugs, but a very, _very_ gentle one.”

Adam grins at that. Then, he carefully embraces his younger brother, Bree following him soon after.

Behind them, Donald and Tasha exchange warm albeit weary smiles.

“We were so worried about you,” Bree tells Leo as they disengage. “Douglas couldn’t find you, and I was worried that you’ve gotten hurt.”

“Actually, we were kind of worried that you’ve been offed.”

“Adam.”

Leo chuckles half-heartedly. During his check-up, his parents filled him in on what his siblings have learned. They also told him that they’re confused, a little hurt that he didn’t say anything about his father, but in general they’re more concerned about him.

“He won’t hurt me,” Leo assures them. “I know he’s supposed to be a bad guy, but at least with me he won’t do anything like that. Actually, he saved—”

“What happened to you?” Bree asks, eyeing the brace wrapped around his torso. “That looks horrible. He didn’t do that to you. Did he?”

Leo scoffs impatiently, the smile on his face lifting. “Incapacitator is my dad. I know you know,” he says, bridling impatience. “You can just ask that. You don’t have to keep calling him ‘he.’ Just ask if my dad hurt me.”

“Oh. Uh…” Bree looks at their parents, and it wakes Leo up to how tired he has gotten. He’s snappy because he’s been awake for way too long.

He guesses he’s running on about four hours of sleep. It’s just right after lunch now, about 1 PM, so he’d been up for nearly half a day without so much a nap or breakfast or a break from worrying about his father.

Leo sighs. “I’m sorry, Bree. I don’t mean to be mean. I’m just - I’m tired.” He tries to smile. “Thanks for worrying about me. I’m safe now, though. It’s probably better if we worry about Chase.”

Bree nods hesitantly. She wants to ask a question, but eventually thinks the better of it. “Okay.”

“The superheroes won’t tell us what happened,” Adam says. “We only found out from the guy with the big head that they found you when he told Mr. Davenport and Tasha you were here.”

“Adam, it’s not very nice to describe Philip that way,” Bree says.

“Oh, I wasn’t talking about Philip. I was talking about the first one that came here, the one with the white lab coat on. You know, the one that you’ve been flirting with?”

“Stop,” Bree tells him as he smirks. “Oliver doesn’t have a big head.”

“Yes he does. He’s cocky, just like Chase.”

Bree’s frown turns thoughtful. Then, her features wrinkle in disgust. She swats Adam’s arm. “Gross! He is nothing like Chase.”

“He is too like Chase.”

“Okay, it may not be a good idea to argue in front of your brother right now, _especially_ when his life is still hanging on the balance?” Donald chimes in.

Leo looks, and on the hospital bed he finds his older brother still unconscious. Their parents told him that they still haven’t found a solution to wake Chase up – and they’re running out of time. “I promise, I didn’t know he was coming to the island either,” he unknowingly mutters to Chase.

“We know.”

Leo turns towards his family, confused.

Bree smiles sadly. “Douglas showed us the text messages.”

“Yeah,” Adam adds. “Plus, it just won’t make sense for you to be working with a villain – even if he is your dad.”

“Wait. You went through my phone?”

Eyes widen. Bree and Adam, surprised, turn to their parents for help.

Tasha’s shoulder sags as she sighs. “We had to, honey. We couldn’t find you.”

“Right. You told the superhero world who I was, too.”

“I didn’t know Joel—” Tasha pauses to regather her thoughts. “I didn’t know your father was a bad guy, okay? I didn’t even know you knew him and kept in contact with him all these years. Why didn’t you tell me?”

“Because he told me not to tell you. Because I liked the idea that I’m not that kid anymore who didn’t have a dad, the kid who would have no one to show up for him when there are school things.”

His mother stares at him, stuck in the weird fence of hurt and frustrated.

Like the look he saw from Bree earlier, Leo doesn’t like this either. This time, though, he can’t blame the exhaustion. “I know I should have told you, but I liked having him around,” he adds. “And I know to the superheroes, he’s a terrible person, but he had never gotten me involved in any of it. He’s been a good dad, mom. A weird guy sometimes for sure, but a good dad.”

Tasha seems torn for the longest. She takes his countenance in, as she always does when she’s weighing whether a person or a situation is a danger to him, before gesturing to him. “You still haven’t answered Bree’s question about what happened to you.”

“Uh, we were caught in a rumble.”

“A rumble?” Adam asks.

“Yeah. What the superheroes and villains call a fight with more than two fighters.”

“Oh!”

“Somebody put out a hit on Dad.” Leo catches the flicker of worry in his mother’s face and oddly finds it comforting. He looks at his stepfather. “The Incapacitator was the first to get to the energy transponder, but he isn’t the only one who wants it. Slither, Sonic Shriek, The Ambusher, and this guy who looked like a mobster came to take it away from Dad. I even heard about someone named Mr. Terror. She wants it too.”

“Dude,” Adam says, an excited grin forming on his mouth. “You know _other_ super villains too?”

“I mean, Incapacitator I understand why he would want it,” Donald says, frowning thoughtfully. “He told me – us. But why do the other people want it?”

“I don’t know. Sonic Shriek said he wants to see it because he considers your invention a rip-off of his invention...”

“It is not!”

“...but the others I’m not sure. All I know is that they were all willing to eliminate us for it.”

“I’m sorry to ask this,” says Bree, “but what happened to your dad? Where is he?”

Leo takes a deep breath, the anxiety that ebbed far enough earlier reaching back for him again. “He…He left—”

“He left you in the middle of a fight?!” Tasha screeches.

Leo fights the urge to roll his eyes. “Yes.” _And I’m worried about why he did that._ “I don’t know if he still has the transponder, though. It was a war zone at Nana’s and Pop’s house when Tecton and the rest of the League took me. “

“Nana’s and Pop’s?” Donald repeats. “You were at your grandparents’ house?”

“Yeah.” He looks at his mom and adds, “He always talked about his parents. They’ve been long gone, but he’d been taking care of their house because it was important to him.”

It takes a little longer, but the anger in his mother’s eyes slowly softened.

“At least, he tried to. The house is probably in shreds,” he sighs. His eyes narrow. “None of them ever really said who put out a hit on us. Dad suspected Mr. Terror, but her minion said it’s not her.”

“Mr. Terror is involved?”

The family turns to the door. There, Tecton, Gamma Girl, and Skylar Storm stand.

Leo glances at his parents first, unsure how to answer. “Tecton. You look well-rested.”

“I am.”

“Nice. That makes one of us.”

“You mentioned Mr. Terror,” Tecton prompts again. “Gamma Girl and Blue Tornado saw his main lackey at the scene. Did he want the transponder, too?”

Leo nods slowly as he tries to recall. “Yeah, my dad thinks so.” He chuckles. “Although, Mr. Terror is a woman. _She_ wants the transponder.”

“No, we have Mr. Terror on record as a man,” Gamma Girl corrects. “A spy had been on the phone with him before.”

“That’s true! In the comics, he’s a man!”

The wall of superheroes awkwardly parts as the two teenage doctors wiggle their way into the room. Kaz, the first one in, grins back at the trio. “I’m sorry, Tecton, Gamma Girl – we gotta check in on our patient.”

“What Kaz said is right,” Oliver tells Leo. “Mr. Terror is a man. Everyone in the superhero world knows that.”

“Well, apparently the superhero world is behind,” Leo says. “My dad may be on the bad side, but one thing he’s not bad at is doing detective work. Joel Jones is thorough. If he says Mr. Terror is a woman, she’s a woman.”

“Why does he have information on her?” Gamma Girl asks.

Leo shrugs. “Like I said, he doesn’t tell me anything. He leaves me out of his plans because he knows I don’t want to know.” Then, he frowns.

“What?” says Adam.

Leo gauges the room first. He’s learned that even the most insignificant-seeming piece of information can turn an outcome around. It appeared harmless at the time, but…

Knowing that suspicion is starting to mount, he turns towards Chase’s doctors. “When is Chase going to wake up? He should be okay now.”

Kaz and Oliver exchange confused glances. “Uh, we’re still trying to find a cure,” Oliver says. “To his condition.”

“His condition.”

“Yeah…?”

Leo frowns. They’re qualified for the job, aren’t they? Mighty Med’s never been one to hire on doctors that lack the skill and the knowledge for the job.

Still, the deer caught in the headlights look on their eyes diminishes his confidence in the hospital a little.

“I get it. It’d been better if Chase was awake,” he says anyway. “The only person who can solve a Chase problem is Chase.”

“Leo, we need to talk to you,” Gamma Girl tells him. 

Leo doesn’t have to ask why; he already knows.

“He hasn’t had time to rest,” Tasha comes to his rescue. “He hasn’t slept, hasn’t eaten. Can’t this wait?”

“We won’t take long, we promise,” Tecton says. The look he gives Leo weighs heavy with desperation. “If the same people that showed up at the house find your father again, there might be another rumble. Thankfully, no one was hurt from the one this morning. We can’t guarantee the next one.”

Leo knows what he has to do. Still, it holds him back – the one worry he’s been carrying since he left  K ansas earlier. “Dad said he’s in a line of work where people make him retire. If I help you, won’t I be helping you in that? My dad, I don’t want him to... _retire.”_

A somber expression comes over Gamma Girl’s face. Meanwhile, Skylar only looks up to Tecton for the next move.

Tecton thinks about it a moment. Then, he cases the room and determines quickly that there are too many eyes and too many ears for this kind of conversation. “It’s probably better if we talk about this in private,” he says.

Leo debates it. When he was just assisting his stepsiblings, he doesn’t have to think too far ahead to know what’s the right thing to do. Thankfully, they’re still beginners in this game, and while things can get a little complicated, they’re not that tangled.

But the world of superheroes and super villains is a different world entirely. It’s a game of chess, where every player’s very rarely inept at the game.

It sends a nervous energy all throughout his body. All over again, it makes him hurt. It also scares him, because he’s not as good as this as his father.

But something in him moves him to try. It’s the only thing to do at this point.

He nods. “I’ll be right back,” he tells his parents.

Though puzzled, they nod.

With every limb in his body weighing heavier with every step, he follows the superheroes to wherever they plan on taking him. He still remembers his father giving him a kiss on the forehead and telling him everything will be alright and that he loves him.

_Where are you, Dad?_ Leo wonders.  _I need you right now. Where are you?_


	13. XIII: Legacy

Leo stares at the cup of water Tecton places in front of him. They promised that late lunch is on its way, but he doesn’t think he can put down anything right now.

They took him to an empty conference room at Mighty Max. There’s nothing intimidating about the room itself. It’s neat, furnished similarly to the way conference rooms at Davenport Industries are furnished. 

But what unsettles him is the fact that they took him there rather than to an empty room upstairs. That makes his heart beat a little harder. He’s already a bit dizzy from lack of sleep, but being here, in the prison of the superhero world, his head spins harder. 

“I think I’m going to be sick,” Leo mutters as he hunches over the polished oak table. 

Tecton and Skylar exchange glances. “I can get you something from upstairs,” Skylar offers, standing.

Leo shakes his head. “No, no. I’m just –” He swallows, willing his stomach to stop turning. “I’ve never been at Mighty Max before.”

“I’m sorry, Leo. I know how awful this must look,” Tecton says. He sits down across from him. “You have nothing to worry about. We only took you down here because there were too many people upstairs. We want to take you where it’s safe.”

“Safe? Like Tom Cruise _Day and Night_ safe?”

“I’m sorry?”

“Nothing.” 

Tecton notes the nervous way he knots then unknots his fingers. “Leo, I promise, you are not in trouble. It’s really just precaution.” He weighs his next words carefully before saying, “It’s for your safety. We don’t want word getting out about your connection with The Incapacitator.”

Leo nods absently.

Tecton can tell he’s distracted, but he doesn’t push. Instead, he says, “Your mom said you haven’t had food and sleep yet. Besides that, how are you doing?”

“Fine.”

“You look pretty banged up.”

“It’s okay. I’m used to things like this now. I go with my siblings whenever they have missions.” He rethinks about it. “At least, I _used_ to go with them. I don’t think they will trust me anymore.”

The silence that follow is cold, unsure. There’s a threat of hostility at its fringes, but Leo thinks it might just be because of the prisoners somewhere in their vicinity.

“Well, you survived a rumble that involved multiple super villains. If they don’t think that’s proof that you’re more than capable to roll with them, that’s their loss.”

Leo blinks as Skylar smiles at him. There’s something so warm and comforting about it, something non-judgmental and safe.

Unknowingly, he reciprocates her kindness with a small smile.

“I know this is probably the last thing you want to talk about,” Tecton says a moment later, “but we have to discuss it: what happened while you were with your father?”

What happened? Leo scours his memory of a few hours ago. “Nothing. We just hung out,” he tells Tecton. “He’d been wanting to take me to my grandparents’ house for the longest, so that’s where he took me.”

“So, that house was your grandparents’ house.”

Leo steels. Should he have said that?

Seeing that the teenager won’t go into any more details on that, Tecton segues, “Your grandparents. You know that we know what happened to them.”

Leo thinks carefully about his answer – a task proving too difficult without sufficient rest. He wonders whether it’s time to tell Tecton and Skylar what he knows yet.

After hearing about Sebastian Kline, though, he hesitates. He doesn’t know if he can trust anyone beside Horace. “Yeah,” he answers instead.

Tecton nods. If he smelled anything suspicious from his silence, he doesn’t let on. “You can probably guess that the house isn’t quite a house anymore after this morning.”

“Yeah. The job gets messy.”

“Right. Don’t worry, though: we instructed the agents at the area to collect whatever they can from the wreckage. It’d be in evidence for a while, but we can release them to you – if that’s what you’d like.”

The memory of the stuffed bunny and his father’s and uncle’s favorite story books causes a small smile on his face. “I’d like that.”

Tecton smiles back. Then he sits up. “Now…”

“You want to know if my dad told me anything, what he’s going to do next.”

“Let’s start first on his reason for taking you,” Tecton says. “He obviously hadn’t been violent with you before. What happened at the island?”

Suddenly, Leo feels as if the last ounce of his energy had been drained from him. “I don’t know either. He told me he was going to come get me, but I thought it won’t be for a few more days. I...I kind of had a feeling that he was going to come that day, but after he told me he wasn’t…”

He smirks, scoffing. _No. He didn’t tell me he wouldn’t._ _I just assumed._ “I thought he wouldn’t,” he corrects himself. “He said he wouldn’t, and I believed him.” 

“And you didn’t tell anyone about it.”

Leo glares. He doesn’t like how that sounded. “They all think he’s dead. How would I do that without sounding like a complete lunatic?”

Tecton nods patiently. “Okay.”

At that moment, the door swings open. “Sorry I took a while!” a female superhero in black, white, and silver comes in, a tray of food in her hands. She closes the door then puts the selection in front of Leo, smiling widely at him. “Here. This is yours, they said.”

Tecton clears his throat. “Uh, Sharp?” Then, he gestures at his eyes.

The younger superhero only tilts her head, confused. Then: “Oh! The mask. Right,” she says. She takes the empty seat next to him. “Well, I figured he should know who I am anyway. Hi. I’m Sharp.”

At first, Leo only eyes her and the hand she’s offering. Eventually, he shakes her hand. “I’m Leo. Dooley.”

“I know.”

_Must be a new superhero in the league,_ Leo thinks.

“Where’s Gamma Girl?” Tecton asks her quietly.

Sharp grins. “Italkedherintolettingmesitininstead,” she replies under her breath. “Now! Where were we?”

“Uh, we were just asking Leo about what happened at the island,” Tecton answers, but it’s obvious her arrival had given him an unpleasant whiplash.

“Alright.”

The oddness of their interaction causes Leo to chuckle. Tearing open the small bag of chips, he answers, “It was important for both of us that people don’t know we’re related.”

“I’m sorry?”

“Us. My dad and I.” Leo tests a potato chip then he takes a bite of the marvelously warm BLT sandwich. The taste of food in his mouth floods him with much joy. “This is fantastic,” he tells Sharp.

Sharp grins. “Got you one of those and also a cheeseburger. I didn’t know which one you’d want.”

“Mm-hmm.” Leo takes another bite, finishes it, and then continues. “It’s important to Incapacitator that his enemies don’t know he has a weakness. He thinks they’d want to exploit it.”

Tecton frowns. “Enemies. Like, superheroes?”

“Some of them. Not you, though. He’s worried about other villains, too.”

Skylar nods. “Makes sense.”

“Did you guys find the energy transponder?”

“No,” Tecton answers.

For a while, Leo only eats. The fuel helps him to think clearer. “They all wanted it, the visitors from last night,” he says. “I told my family about this already, but they all came for the energy transponder.”

Tecton’s – and even Sharp’s – brows furrow. “How did they know about it?”

“I don’t know. My dad isn’t the type of person to broadcast things, _unlike my stepdad_ ,” he mutters the last part. 

He then frowns when he remembers something. “Well, Sonic Shriek did say that somebody sent a message out. He said they were told where my dad is and that he has the energy transponder. If they wanted it, they could get it.”

The frown on Tecton’s and Sharp’s faces clear.

Leo doesn’t miss the knowing look that comes to Sharp’s eyes. “Interesting,” she says.

“Why?” Leo asks, sitting up. “Did someone really want us hurt?”

“We’re investigating that,” Tecton says (Leo notes how he doesn’t meet Sharp’s eyes). “Who did you see at the house this morning?”

“Uh, Sonic Shriek, like I mentioned,” Leo answers. “You said Ambusher was there. Mr. Terror’s lackey was there; don’t know his name. Slither was there, too. He tried to kill me.”

“He tried to kill you?”

Leo nods. “In my sleep.”

“How’d you escape him?” Skylar asks.

_The voices,_ Leo thinks but can’t say.

So, he just shrugs.

“You mentioned Mr. Terror’s minion, Mort,” Tecton prompts. “Besides the transponder, did he mention any other reason why he was there?”

“Not really. That’s all he wanted. He was probably there just to get it for her.”

“Her?” Sharp asks.

“Mr. Terror.”

“It’s still strange to me hearing that Mr. Terror is actually a woman,” Skylar comments. “It’s possible, of course, but we’ve always thought Mr. Terror was a man.”

Leo shrugs. “Maybe in the past.”

“Incapacitator never said anything how he knows about that?” Tecton says.

“Nope. Like I said, he keeps me out of his business.” Sadness slowly comes over him when he remembers his father. They argued yesterday. 

Now, he doesn’t even know how to contact him.

“I told him I didn’t want to be a villain,” he admits, putting down the sandwich. He cleans his fingers with a napkin and says, “He keeps offering to train me but I told him I didn’t want to be one.”

“You didn’t.”

“No.” He hesitates to continue. He doesn’t know if they’re even genuinely interested in the reason. 

A weary smirk pulls at his lips. “It upset him, whenever I said no. He said I’m being wasted assisting my siblings. I’m too smart for it, he said.” He chuckles humorlessly. “Maybe this makes me a bad person, but I agree with him. I do. I never told my stepdad and my step-siblings this, but I hate the way they treat me. Lately, they seem to have developed the unique ability of making me feel useless.”

He chances a glance at his audience, and the mixture of uncertainty, sympathy, and pity with unease makes him think that he had overshared.

They won’t understand, he concludes. They’ve never been in his situation anyway.

So he sits up and pretends none of it happened. “I know I might be asking the impossible. As superheroes, your job is to protect others and uphold justice or whatever. But Joel Jones is important to me. He’s my dad. He’s the only one who makes me believe that I’m good for something other than desk work.”

He bows his head and grips the edge of his chair, the tide of desperation slowly rising once again. “I know I don’t have enough merit to ask you this, but please – save my dad. You can arrest him, do whatever, but please bring him back alive. I...I’m not ready to lose him yet. I still need him.”

He doesn’t look up. He doesn’t want to see outright rejection of his request from their faces.

The silence that follows is sluggish and cruel. For a moment, Leo thinks they will kindly reject him, tell him other people’s lives are valuable so they must do what they have to do.

But then, Tecton says, “Our job  _is_ to protect others—including your dad.” He smiles when the teenager looks up at him. “Look, I know The Incapacitator and I don’t see eye to eye, but my only goal has been to catch him. We know what your father went through.”

“Yeah,” Sharp chimes. “We know he doesn’t have a good opinion of us, and that’s understandable, but it doesn’t mean we want him gone. We still hold out the hope that he will change his mind.”

“Even when he absolutely hates all of you?”

Sharp takes in a breath and glances at Tecton. “Even...when he absolutely hates us.”

Leo blinks. Can he really hope? Many things can happen during an arrest, and his father is not one to go down without a fight. Can he really trust them?

He surveys the room quickly for any surveillance equipment. “Do you...Do you know of a superhero named Solstice?”

“Uh…” Tecton shakes his head. “I – I don’t think so.”

Skylar shakes her head when Tecton turns to her.

“Why?” Sharp asks.

Leo reads it immediately. She’s curious, but not puzzled like Tecton and Skylar. Her eyes betray that she might know something that her colleague and junior don’t know.

It’s his ace, his father’s lineage. However, it makes him nervous again, the looming cloud that is Sebastian Kline.

He doesn’t know how close or loyal Tecton and Sharp are to Kline. “The Arcturion,” he leads instead.

“Solstice...has it?”

“What is it?” 

“Why?”

_Why am I stuck with this situation?_ “Tell me, and I’ll tell you,” he negotiates.

Tecton ponders over it, but it takes a little too long for Leo’s taste.

“It’s an alien power source,” Sharp answers instead. “It’s rumored to give an insane amount of power to whoever can harvest its energy.”

Leo sighs. Insane amount of power. Of course. “That makes sense.”

“No one knows where it is, though.”

Leo scoffs softly. “I won’t be too sure about that.”

“Did Incapacitator say something about it?” 

“Not in connection with his plans, no.”

Tecton’s eyes narrow as Leo draws the silence. “But he mentioned it to you. Why?”

Leo shrugs. “Like I said, he doesn’t like it that my step-family keeps benching me. He knows I don’t want to follow in his footsteps, but that doesn’t mean he has stopped convincing me.

“The thing is, I know I don’t have powers. He thinks I’m just a late bloomer, but I know enough to know I’m not. So he was suggesting ways for me to get these powers he’s convinced I inherited from him—”

“And he mentioned the Arcturion,” Sharp finishes. “He wants it for you.”

“Only if I want it, he said,” Leo says. “That’s how I found out that Mr. Terror is a woman. He said we have a better chance at getting our hands on it than _she_ does.”

“I know he didn’t say it,” Tecton says, “but did it feel like he might know where it is?”

He doesn’t have to think about it long.

Instincts kicking in, his mouth glues shut.

Seeing his hesitation, Tecton pleads, “Leo, we have to know what we’re dealing with. Like you, our families want us to be able to come back home to them. The better prepared we are, the less likely any of those involved will get seriously hurt.”

Leo thinks over it a moment. Eventually, he acquiesces.

He nods.

“He knows where it is?” Skylar asks, shocked.

“Like Tecton said, my dad didn’t say it,” Leo clarifies, “but I know him. He wouldn’t have made a comment like that if he didn’t have any idea where it is or how to locate it.”

Tecton falls back into his chair, sighing. “This is a big problem. If he has the Arcturion it will be dangerous for all of us.”

“But – he’s not going to have it that quickly,” Leo reasons desperately. “He’s taking his time with this plan. It’s not like the other times.”

“That’s not how Incapacitator usually operates,” Sharp says. “He acts quickly. He thinks on his feet. He doesn’t plan—”

“I know, I know. It’s just – It’s different this time,” Leo says. “If the rumble didn’t happen, the two of us would have been there at Kansas for a few more days. He wanted to wait it out.” 

“What was he doing while you were at your grandparents’ house?” Tecton asks.

“I don’t know. Fixing something?”

“Did you see what he was working on?” Sharp asks.

“No. He – he had me locked up in his old room.”

“So how would you know he was actually there?” 

“Because I heard him! He was there!” 

His yell echoes in the silence.

This is not going to work. He usually doesn’t get this emotional, but… “He’s my dad,” he tells them. “I know that things are different now, but I know he’s still a good father. He still respects my opinion. If that Arcturion or whatever is dangerous, especially to someone like me, he wouldn’t have brought it anywhere near me.”

The memory of his father telling him everything will be okay makes him miss his father even more. “That thing is just not part of his plan, okay?” he says. “I just know it.”

The room lies still for what must be the longest moment. It seems to Leo that time has frozen.

Eventually, Tecton sighs. “I’m sorry, Leo, but it looks like it is,” he disagrees. “He may not have had it with him when you were still together, but with what happened this morning…” He shrugs. 

“Look, we’re not saying our intentions of catching him alive has changed. It hasn’t,” Sharp kindly assures the teenager. “All we’re saying here is that if the Arcturion is involved, we’re going to need more help. That’s all.”

If he allows himself to be more reasonable, Leo can see that they’re telling the truth.

Still, it worries him. If something happens to his father because he mentioned the Arcturion, won’t it be his fault?

He fidgets with the edge of the table as tears glaze his eyes. “I just want to see him again, that’s all,” he mutters.

Thoughts of his father, of how badly things can end, numbs him that he slowly forgets the other people in the room.

But then, a hand gently rests on top his, putting a warm pause on his fidgeting.

Skylar smiles at him when he turns to her. “Do you want to come with us?”

“Skylar,” Tecton and Sharp warn in unison.

“Like you both said, it’ll be a highly volatile situation if Incapacitator has the Arcturion,” Skylar reasons. “But if we have Leo there, he will hesitate.”

“That’s also putting a civilian in danger,” Tecton points out.

“He’s not exactly just a civilian. He assists his siblings in different missions. He knows how these things usually goes.”

“But—”

“She’s right. I should be there,” Leo agrees. “He won’t listen to me, and he’d get mad that I’m helping you – but I could be a buffer.”

“No,” Tecton says. “That’s too big of a risk to take.”

“It’s my life.”

“That we’re not willing to risk.”

“But it’s mine.”

“It’s also something that your father would not want to risk.” The fire in the leader’s eyes weakens. “Leo, this is not a fight you should get involved in. We don’t want you to get hurt, and Incapacitator wouldn’t want you to get hurt.”

“But...I can’t just sit here,” Leo pleads.

“You can, and you should,” Tecton says patiently. “Your dad will be safer if you’re out of the rumble. What if in his desperation to keep you alive, he does something that gets him hurt? What if in trying to save you, other people get hurt?”

“I’m useless, is what you’re saying.”

“You’re too important is what we’re saying,” Sharp corrects. She smiles at him. “Your dad is right: you’re a promising young man. And, personally, I do think desk work shouldn’t be all that is for you. But if something happens to you, everything ends at that moment. There’s no more future for you, no more ways to prove other people that they were wrong.”

She’s right. Once again they’re right. “You’re just saying that to convince me to stay.”

“Yeah,” Sharp admits, “because I really do think you’d make for a good trainee.”

“A good...what?”

“Your family must be looking for you now,” Tecton says, getting up from the table. Though confused, Sharp slowly gets up, too. “We’ll update you as soon as we find information about your dad. Right now, you should really rest.”

“But, I haven’t even finished my food yet,” Leo says as he rises to his feet.

“That’s fine. You can take it with you,” Tecton says. “Sharp, there’s something we need to discuss.”

“Uh, what?” Sharp asks.

“Please come with me.”

Sharp exchanges confused glances with the two teenagers as Tecton walks out of the room in a hurry. Though unsure, she follows him outside.

“Oh!” Leo says. “If you can, can you guys give my—” 

The door shuts close.

Leo sighs. “...uncle an update.”

“Your family probably already told him you’re back,” Skylar helps, looking up at him. “He’s been worried about you, too, and I’m sure your stepdad would’ve sent him a text.”

“Not that uncle. The other one,” Leo says in resign. He frowns down at Skylar. “Do you know what she was talking about? What does she mean by trainee?”

Skylar shrugs, getting up from her chair. “I don’t know. Probably League lingo that none of us can understand.”

“You’re not a league member?”

“No. Lost my powers. Technically not a superhero anymore.”

Leo picks up his tray. “You and I are the same, I guess.”

A smirk pulls at Skylar’s lips as she follows him out of the conference room. “Same as in, we’re both technically not superheroes?”

“No.” He pauses to face her. “Both judged by the things we don’t have.” Continuing to the general direction of the elevator, he asks, “Is this the one we take up to Mighty Med? It’s not going to take us to a weird place, is it?”

“No, no. It’ll take us there.”

Unknown to Leo, Skylar has smiled at him.

Because after a long while, somebody finally seems to understand her.


	14. XIV: By Any Means Necessary

Chase takes another glance at Leo’s sleeping form. He’s curled up in one of the guest lounges, a blanket wrapped restlessly around him.

It causes his brows to furrow noticing how his younger brother clutches the blanket desperately, as if he doesn’t want it to be taken away from him.

It makes him feel a bit sorry, knowing that his sibling and closest friend had been going through something without anyone’s knowing it.

Despite his protests after he woke up, the League of Heroes insisted that searching for The Incapacitator is now their case. He, Adam, and Bree had argued that this was something the three of them need to handle. After all, it happened in their turf first.

But the superheroes were insistent. Bigger enemy, they said.

As if the three of them are not as good as they are.

“Look, if we really can’t do anything about it, let’s just head home,” Bree says, aged a few years under the light of exhaustion. “I doubt the guy will show up this soon anyway.”

“No. We can’t just hand this over to them,” Chase says quietly, coming back into the semi-huddle the three of them had made. “This is ours, no matter what they say.  _We_ were the ones attacked,  _we_ were the ones who were wronged.”

“And don’t forget:  _you_ were the one who allowed Leo’s dad into the island,” Adam remarks with a supercilious grin. 

Chase rolls his eyes. “I didn’t know he was a bad guy. How many times am I to tell you that?” he says. “Plus, if you think about it, I wasn’t entirely at fault. He’s Leo’s dad. That means there was something about him when I first talked to him that told me I could trust him.”

Adam says nothing, only keeps smiling as he checks the halls for unwanted listeners.

“As much as I respect your want to put all of this to rest,” Bree says, “Adam and I are tired. We’ve been up all night watching over you. Going into a mission when we’re like this might result into someone getting hurt.”

“This isn’t our first overtime mission.”

Bree throws her head back, whining. “Chase, you’re not hearing me! Let’s just leave this to the superheroes! They have more resources than we do!”

“That’s not true. We have more than what they have.”

“Fine! Whatever! We have more. But please, let’s just go home.”

Chase says nothing, but his frown speaks volumes of his displeasure.

However, when he thinks about what Bree has said, that they’ve been awake for longer, he realizes that there might be a bit of an error in his plan. He’s had some fuel to go on, they don’t. If they weren’t able to defeat a superpowered madman when their tanks were full, how can they expect to win when they can barely focus?

Slowly, the frown lifts. “I’m sorry for insisting, but – I just don’t like the idea that other people in our profession might think we’re useless,” he tells his older siblings. “We’ve been working hard since we were little. I made a mistake, I’ll admit to that, but I don’t want them thinking that just four years after we start, we’re already making a mess we can’t even clean.”

“Nobody is accusing us of that,” Bree points out reassuringly.

“Yeah,” Adam chimes. “They probably just want this because Leo’s dad is Tecton’s archnemesis or whatever.”

Chase frowns. “They’re rivals?”

“Like Marcus and Leo.”

“Where’d you hear that?” Bree asks.

“Where else? The only spot where you get the juiciest gossip from: the nurses’ station.”

“They let you hang out with them?”

“Well, yeah. I mean, it took them about fifteen minutes to realize I was there, of course, but…”

“What else did you hear?” Chase prompts.

Adam shrugs. “Nothing much. I did hear talk about there being this weird thing going on between two of the girls in the hero club. Apparently, that Solar Flare girl? The one Bree and I have seen at the lobby? She’d been oddly cold towards this other female superhero called Sharp lately. There are lots of speculations on why the ladies are at odds with each other, but the most common guess is that there’s a weird love triangle going on with the two and Tecton.”

Chase narrows his eyes, confused.

“I mean, you asked about what I heard,” Adam says.

“Yes, but about Tecton and The Incapacitator.”

“Oh! Well, not much, only that apparently, The Incapacitator has a kid.”

Chase and Bree stare at him. “Of course he has a kid,” Chase points out, frustrated. “ _Leo_ is his kid.”

Adam gasps.  _“No.”_

Chase sighs.

Meanwhile, Bree darts daggers at him. “Adam, seriously, I love you, but I will fight you,” she threatens. “You knew about Leo. You were there when Mr. Davenport and Tasha told us.”

“Oh.”

_“Oh,”_ Bree mocks.

Adam frowns.

“I meant what else did they say about Tecton and The Incapacitator  _that we don’t already know_ ,” Chase tries again.

Adam thinks about it. “Love triangle, we already went through that. The Incapacitator being a dad, we  _apparently_ knew about that,” he says, shooting Bree a glare. “What else? Oh. What about the league looking into Leo?”

“Looking into Leo?”

“Yeah. Apparently, when they took Leo away earlier, they interrogated him.”

“Interrogated?” Bree repeats, incredulous. “They told us they just wanted to ask questions.”

Adam shrugs. “Well, they did. But they took him to a place where they usually take prisoners.”

“They can’t do that!” Chase screeches

Adam and Bree, surprised, shushes him.

“They can’t do that,” Chase repeats, much quieter than earlier but also a lot more heatedly. “Leo’s 17. He’s a minor. They can’t question him without a guardian present.”

“They’re the big dogs. They can do whatever they want,” Adam offers.

“No, they can’t,” Chase fumes. “Not on our watch.”

“Did the nurse say what they asked him about?” Bree asks.

Adam shakes his head. “Restricted access. Only a few people were allowed in.”

“How was he when they finished?” Chase asks his sister.

“I don’t know,” Bree answers. “We didn’t really get to see him right after. He looked tired, for sure, when they told us he was here.”

“No one saw him after the interrogation.”

“Someone saw him with Skylar Storm right after,” Adam supplies. He narrows his eyes at his siblings. “I’d tell you what they said about them, but you probably also already know it.”

“Who’s Skylar Storm?” Chase asks.

“Teenage superhero,” Bree replies. “Also super annoying and stuck-up.”

“What? Skylar’s nice,” Adam says. He smirks. “She’s only annoying and stuck-up to you because she’s a bit territorial over your doctor friend.”

“She’s not. Shut up.”

“So we have to find her,” Chase says, turning over a plan in his mind. “We have to ask and see what she knows.”

“She’s not going to tell us.” Seeing the knowing smile on Adam’s face, Bree rolls her eyes. “She’s not going to tell us  _because_ she works with the league. She’s loyal to them.”

“We don’t know that.”

“We do know that. She had been with them since yesterday.”

_So a different method then,_ Chase thinks. He shakes his head. “We can’t just let them take on The Incapacitator,” he says. “This is a personal issue we need to solve on our own. The incident happened on our island, our home. Leo is involved. If we let them run the show, how will that make us look?”

“But we’re not equipped for this,” Bree points out. “This is different.”

“No. I know it looks like what we have can’t stack up against this big league, but I know what we can do.” Chase’s eyes soften as he thinks of their family. “We’ve rescued Mr. Davenport from Marcus and Douglas before. We’ve defeated Krane several times. We’ve defeated an army much stronger than us. The Incapacitator is powerful, but he’s also just a man. We can take him on.”

“Chase—”

“I know. You’re tired,” Chase says. “That’s why I suggest that we take a few hours, sneak back into the island to recharge, and then search for Incapacitator ourselves. We can gather up a team to get him.”

“You’re not suggesting that we take the students, are you?” Bree says.

A look of unease comes over his face.

Bree lets out a breath. “Chase. This is dangerous. Incapacitator nearly killed you.”

“I know. I know. That’s why we have to find the best ones.”

“You’re also not quite clear yet to go on your own,” Adam points out, smirking. “The doctor with the spiky hair said you need supervision, remember? If we leave, they’ll blow the whistle on us.”

“Then, let’s take them with us, Oliver and Kaz,” Chase says.

Adam chuckles in disbelief.

“Wow. First, we’re taking students to this fight,” Bree says. “Now civilians?”

“Do you have confidence in our abilities or not?” Chase looks at them, determination set in his heart. “We’re as good as these superheroes. We saved and protected people even before we knew the heroes existed. We’re all on the same level. Are you really afraid that we’d fail?”

“We kinda already did,” Adam says.

“Yes,  _once_ – but now we know what to watch out for,” Chase says. “We can prepare better because we know better. And push comes to shove, we have an ace up our sleeve.”

“Which is?”

The same unease rolls back onto him like an ocean wave. “Leo,” he answers.

Bree’s eyes widen. “Are you insane? Do you want him to be kidnapped again?”

“Everything’s out in the open now,” Chase reasons. “Incapacitator won’t do that anymore.”

“What if he gets hurt?”

“He won’t – more than the usual, I hope,” Chase notes. Seeing the trepidation on their faces, he adds, “I know Leo. I know he’d want to help us. Plus, we’re more likely to bring his dad back safe. We’ll be more cautious; he’s kind of a distant family member. Leo would want us to do this.”

“What if the league gets involved?” Bree asks.

“That’s why we have to move quickly. The faster we locate Incapacitator, the quicker we’ll get this nightmare over with.”

His older siblings still don’t agree with him, that much he can tell from their expressions. But they’re thinking about it, and he holds out the hope that his reasoning will win them over.

Bree’s the first to cave. She sighs, scratching her eyebrow. “How are we going to convince Oliver and Kaz to come with us?”

Chase shrugs. “I don’t know, offer them a tour? They don’t need to know that we came back to do a search.”

“Nice. We’re getting them involved,  _and_ we’re lying to them.”

“What other choice do we have? We need to buy time.”

Bree pauses, thinking. “What about Skylar? She never leaves Oliver’s side. The two guys, we can count on to keep everything quiet. Her? Not so much.”

“Trust me: she’s not a problem,” Adam says, smirking. “If we get Chase’s doctors out of her sight, she’d forget about them long enough for us to do our search. The superheroes are keeping her busy, too.”

“Are they looking for Incapacitator now?” Chase asks.

“Of course.”

Chase takes a deep breath. “Then we really gotta get this show on the road,” he says. “Do you guys know how to get both of them over here?”

“Wait. What about Leo?” Adam asks, gesturing to the lounge where their stepbrother still sleeps. “Should we wake him?”

_Yes,_ Chase wants to say. However, when he peeks in and finds Leo, safe and sound away from the dangers of the world in slumber, pity washes over him. 

Bree places a hand on his shoulder. “Let’s just leave him for now,” she says.

Chase nods. “Okay.”

“Should we get Tasha and Mr. Davenport?” Adam asks.

“No. Someone needs to stay with Leo for the meantime,” Chase says.

The three of them startle at the voices coming from down the hall. As they get closer, Chase realizes that his plan is all falling into place.

“So, we don’t tell them that.”

“No. Not if you—” They pause at the sight of the siblings. “Adam! Bree! Chase! What are you guys doing here?”

Adam smirks. “Just talking. About you guys, actually.”

“Oh, about us?” Kaz asks as they draw closer. He chuckles nervously. “You guys didn’t – You didn’t happen to hear what we were talking about, did you?”

Bree shakes her head, smiling. “We didn’t hear anything.”

“Good! Good! That…” Kaz mutters, “That would have been a big problem.”

“You guys are not thinking of leaving yet, are you?” Oliver asks. “Chase, you’re not cleared yet. We still have a couple of things we need to, um, check.”

Everything is working so well that Chase almost laughs. Was his plan really that brilliant? “I was actually hoping to go back to the island, yes,” he answers slowly. “I wanted to get a change of clothes there. This mission suit – it’s itchy.”

“But your mom brought you clothes already,” Oliver point out.

“I don’t like those clothes. They’re a little too...small on me.”

“Well, we can’t just let you go.”

“Why don’t you guys come with us?” Adam offers. “We can show you around the island while Chase grabs a few things. It’ll only take us about, what, an hour? An hour and a half?”

“Why that long?” Oliver asks.

Adam leans closer to whisper. “Chase is a little high maintenance,” he tells them as if revealing a secret. He chuckles. “He’s just like our dad that way.”

Kaz and Oliver exchange unsure glances.

_Take the bait, take the bait, take the bait…._ Chase wishes. 

“Can you add a food stop to that tour?” Kaz asks. “We’re supposed to be on break, and we’re both starving.”

_Yes!_ “I’m sure we got something decent to eat,” Chase says, hiding his excitement behind a precise smile. 

“Mmkay.”

Oliver, however, hesitates. “You said you need an hour?”

“Yeah. The island’s pretty big. Plus, the students will want to talk to me to check on me.”

The more calculating of the two, Oliver contemplates over it.

Thankfully, Kaz nudges him, saying, “Come on,  man . Would you rather spend your lunch break eating reheated soup underground or spend it on a beautiful tropical island where there’s food and tech?”

“And me,” Bree says, looping her arms around Oliver’s. “We can hang out. We can talk about school and movies and stuff. Anything you want!”

Oliver’s defenses stays up, but Chase can tell that it’s not as strong anymore now that his sister is involved.

Eventually, the doctor sighs. “An hour. That’s all we have.”

Chase grins. “An hour, then.”  _That’s all we’ll need for the search._

“Ooh!” says Kaz. “I should tell Skylar.”

“No!” Adam and Bree say in unison. They look at each other, surprised.

“Uh…” Bree chuckles. “We were kind of hoping that it’d just be the two of you. We kinda don’t want any more people in the island.”

“Right,” Chase assists. “You two have already seen what’s in there, so you guys are cleared.”

Kaz stares at them a while. Then, he shrugs. “‘kay.”

Oliver frowns. “Wait. How are we going to get there?”

Bree shoots a smirk at Chase. “You ever traveled at the speed of sound before?” she asks the doctors.

Chase chuckles. Everything is going perfectly according to plan.


	15. XV: State of Emergency

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> posting fifteen and sixteen together since fifteen is more transitional than anything ..
> 
> also, if you happen to be fluent in french - please excuse the mistakes in this chapter (bc i know there are going to be a couple). i'm so rusty with the language! if you have any corrections for me, please feel free to let me know in the reviews. will happily correct them and learn from my mistakes :)

Léonie laughs. _“C’est fou, ce plan,”_ she says, grinning at him as they walk around the nearly empty Trocadéro garden. _“Faire un promenade?_ _À_ _1h en matin?”_

_“Pourquoi? C’est tranquille,”_ Etienne replies with a smile.

Léonie takes a deep breath, holding onto the straps of her comically small backpack. _“Oui, c’est vrai.”_

Etienne chuckles. It’s actually his preference, visiting the garden at this hour. They would have time to talk without worrying about the suffocating wave of visitors, both local and foreign.

They can just exist in this space, just the two of them.

_“Wow. C’est belle,”_ Léonie marvels as she stares at the bright lights of the Eiffel Tower. _“Je le vois toujours, mais c’est la première fois que je l’apprécie vraiment.”_

_“C’est parceque nous faisson cette promenade à 1h en matin.”_

Léonie playfully punches him on the arm as he laughs.

A comfortable silence settles over them, brought about by the calm breeze that promises a sweet summer morning.

Etienne steals a glance at Léonie. The way her eyes twinkle brighter than the tower and the way her grin shines brighter than the stars bring out the coward in him.

How can she be so _beautiful_?

He had talked himself over and over into doing this for weeks. If he doesn’t take this opportunity now, he would forever miss it.

But it’s difficult. They had been best friends since they were little, and he’s always known how wonderful and magnificent she is.

She’s Léonie – sweet, resilient, unattainable Léonie.

And he’s just Etienne.

Léonie’s grin slowly falls.

_“Pourquoi? Quel est le probl_ _è_ _me?”_ he asks, worried.

She gives him a sad smile. _“Il me manque,”_ she says. _“Raphael.”_

Etienne only stares.

An unplanned, whirlwind of a trip all over Paris – and she’s _still_ thinking about him.

Suddenly, a brave and vicious feeling surges within him. Raphael? The one that cheated on her half of their entire relationship Raphael? He’s the one she’s thinking about?

That angers him. How could she chase after a man who cannot see her worth? How could she miss someone who apparently didn’t think much about her?

_“Etienne?”_ she calls to him, worry in her eyes.

And just like that, the indignant feeling flies away. All that’s left is pity - both for her and for himself. _“Je peux mieux t’aimer,”_ he mutters.

_“Hm?”_

Etienne looks her in the eye. _“Je peux—”_

The sky suddenly explodes, startling everyone standing in the plaza.

Looking up, Etienne sees that green lightnings have split the black evening clouds. It’s a fearful marvel to behold. He doesn’t quite know what they’re made of, but they’re so electric and angry that he knows nothing good will follow it.

He also doesn’t feel good about the fact that it’s all drawing towards a landmark that overlooks the whole city.

Léonie’s phone is already up, recording everything with a grin. “Cool,” she says.

Etienne takes a hold of her elbow, unable to tear his eyes from the disaster everyone is watching. _“Nous devons partir, L_ _é_ _onie. Maintenant.”_

Léonie chuckles. _“Pourquoi? Ce n'est que des feu d'artifice.”_

_“Ce n’est pas—”_

The sky crackles again, but this time Etienne feels the wave of energy around him. The air vibrates with this strange black hole of a force. It only lasts a few seconds, but it seems to have stayed much too long.

When it withdraws, it takes with it light and power, leaving the Trocadéro in darkness. The few people wandering the garden with them is left stunned as they are. _Qu’est-ce que c’est?_ everyone dreads but do not say.

Meanwhile, the top of the Eiffel tower glows a brighter neon green now – a beacon for more bad things to come.

Etienne’s just regained the courage to tell Léonie that they must leave when his best friend suddenly drops her now powered off phone. Surprised, he glances at the mobile and then her silhouette in the dark. _“L_ _é_ _onie?”_

Though he can’t see much, he sees her clutch at her chest, right where her heart is. He quickly catches her as she staggers backward. _“Ma…”_ She groans. _“_ _Ç_ _a fait mal…”_

His heart skips a beat. Quickly, he pulls out his phone but sees that it’s been rendered powerless, too.

Powerless.

Léonie’s pacemaker.

_“A-Aidez-moi!”_ Etienne pleads. _“Aidez-moi! Nous avons besoin d’une ambulance – Aidez-nous, s’il vous pla_ _î_ _t!”_

A few people comes over to their side, offering comfort and help, while a teenager has run off, hopefully to get to a telephone.

Panic and dread continue to descend on the city as seconds lurch in an agonizing speed.

The tower, meanwhile, stands as a cold sentinel, now corrupted by a force no one below can identify.


	16. XVI: Into Darkness, Part 1

Oliver senses from the start that things are about to go wrong. On the island, when the bionic trio told him and Kaz that they had to go to Las Vegas with them because they received a distress signal regarding the Eiffel Tower, and _if you don’t want to let Chase out of your sight, then you have to come with us!,_ his brain had flashed red.

But that was because he was thinking as a doctor. It made sense: an unwell, _very_ radioactive patient loose equals calamity.

It should probably be monitored and prevented from getting worse.

When they were in _Vegas_ and they realized that the fight was actually at Paris, and that the tips had described sighting of who could only be The Incapacitator, the warning light flashed again – only stronger, more persistent this time.

But that didn’t last long either because as soon as Bree begged him not to call the League, with those pretty eyes of hers, he forced the alarm off.

He was thinking like a boy who had never had a beautiful girl have a crush on him before.

But now? Now that the danger is very much real and dark and consuming? He’s thinking as any normal, non-Gifted person would.

And his normal, non-Gifted instincts tell him that no good can come from this situation.

They’re at the base of the Eiffel Tower, right by the now vacated fountains, and Chase is currently intercepting the reports being tossed back and forth between the emergency personnel.

When he and Adam went up to case the area earlier, they see that the streets are flooded with police cars, firetrucks, and ambulances.

Oddly enough, all of them had been powered off. They sat on the pavement, in the dark, like life-sized Hot Wheels toys.

Oliver looks up at the Eiffel Tower, dead and lifeless like the vehicles. The neon green light reported earlier is nowhere in sight. All that’s left now are the architecture’s bones and the whispers of what it once used to be.

“We should call Skylar,” Oliver quietly tells Kaz. He clandestinely glances back at the siblings, making sure they were out of earshot, before adding, “This isn’t looking good.”

“Oh, relax,” Kaz says, an easy grin on his face as he surveys the Eiffel Tower. “The Davenports gave us blasters to use to protect ourselves. We should be more than good.”

“We’re literally in the dark, Kaz,” Oliver points out, irritated. “What if Incapacitator is waiting for us up there? You know these things won’t do us any good. Plus, if I remember correctly, the first time the three of them went up against him, they lost – big time.”

“No, they didn’t.”

“Chase has plutonium building up in his chip. What do you mean they didn’t?” Realizing that his voice had risen, he steals another look at the siblings.

The little outburst had called to Bree’s and Adam’s attentions.

Oliver grins. “Just talking about the blasters, that’s all,” he tells them. Once they seem satisfied, he turns back to Kaz and draws closer. “You know it’s better if Tecton is here. The Incapacitator is his archenemy. He should get to call the shots.”

“Okay,” Chase says, coming back into the group. “From what I gathered, thankfully, there are no casualties. There were people who got hurt from the initial attack, but those ones had been safely transported to the hospitals.”

“How? The ambulances are kind of just parked right now,” Adam points out.

“No, that happened just twenty minutes ago. Apparently, as soon as they came, another incident happened, and—”

“Incident?” Bree asks.

“Energy draw,” Chase says somberly. “They’re guessing EMP, but we know better.”

“So he knows they’re here,” Kaz observes.

Chase nods. “He probably did it to stop them. With the tower powered down, going up there would be extremely difficult. Now that he has disabled any electric-, battery-, maybe even solar-powered devices and items, it would be impossible.”

“How do we even know he’s still here?” Bree asks. “He already got what he needed. Paris barely has any power left in it. You don’t think he’s moved on?”

“No. He’s still here.”

“Why would he set up shop up there?” Adam asks. “Bree’s right. He could have just moved on somewhere else. Maybe he’s in Vegas this time.”

“I don’t know. My gut tells me he’s here.” Chase’s features betray his unease. He shakes his head. “He didn’t drain this city for nothing. He did all of this on purpose.”

“On purpose?” Kaz repeats.

Chase looks up the consuming shadow. “He’s calling us,” he says. “He wants us to come.”

Chills crawl up Oliver’s skin. “That’s it,” he says, drawing out his phone. “I’m calling Skylar.”

Chase grabs the phone from his hand then tosses it into the fountain.

Oliver gapes. “Hey!”

“This is ours. We found it first,” Chase says resolutely.

“Yeah, well, you sure are horrible in finishing it.”

“Hey, okay, stop,” Bree says, stepping in between the boys as Chase rises to the argument. “Chase, you shouldn’t have thrown Oliver’s phone. What if we need it later?”

“We’re not going to need it,” Chase says. He glares at Oliver. “We’re more than capable handling this on our own.”

“Oliver, look - “ Bree sighs, “I know we’ve made mistakes. But give us a chance. I know we’re not the League of Heroes, but we deserve at least another shot to prove ourselves.”

“I’m not saying you’re not capable,” Oliver responds, more lenient and gentle despite his annoyance with Chase. “All I’m suggesting is that we involve more people in this. Tecton knows Incapacitator’s MO the best. They have a little bit more information on him than we do. I mean, don’t you guys rely on information, too, before you go on your missions?”

“Eh, sometimes,” Adam says.

“The point is: we’re going in blind. You don’t have info on him, do you?”

“Of course we do.” Chase taps his temple. “I have it all right here. I bet no one in your superhero club can store the information I can store in my mind.”

“Sharp,” Kaz says.

“Thank you.”

“No, I mean Sharp,” Kaz clarifies. “She can’t store data like you _per se_ , but she can definitely outsmart you.”

Chase glares at him.

“What else do we need to know about The Incapacitator other than what he’s planned?” Bree says to Oliver. “Yes, it’s true that we need to know some things before going into a fight, but the thing about fights is that things rarely go as planned. What we need is experience, and experience is what we have.”

“You have just about four years of practice.”

Bree’s gaze turn to ice. “And how many years of med school did you and Kaz have again?”

“Ooh!” Adam says excitedly. “I’m smelling first fight!”

Both dart daggers at him, effectively silencing him. “That’s got nothing to do with this,” Oliver patiently tells her.

“It’s got everything to do with it,” Bree says. “ _Just_ four years? Do you know what we’ve all been through in _just_ four years?”

“I’m not saying it’s not valid - ”

“Oh, that’s exactly what you were saying.” Bree crosses her arms then scoffs. “Now I get it. It’s obvious that Skylar likes you, but I was wondering why she’s keeping her distance. Now I see it’s because you’re so self-righteous.”

All the patience he has left in him evaporates. He smirks. “Yeah. You and your brothers are so skilled and so organized that you had to trick two civilians into joining your mission.”

“Don’t bring Chase and Adam into this.”

“You brought Kaz and Skylar into it first!”

Kaz chuckles nervously. “All right, kids. There’s really no need to argue. Maybe we just - ”

“You’re always free to leave,” Bree tells Oliver, turning her back on him to look up the Eiffel. “We’re able to do just fine without you.”

 _Right. It’s not like your brother didn’t almost die just a few hours ago._ _Things sure were looking_ _‘fine’ right then._ Oliver is fuming, but he at least has the decency to refrain from fanning the fire.

At that moment, a neon green light begins to glow at the tip of the tower.

Chase takes a deep breath. “It’s him.” Seeing that his sister now refuses to speak, he tells Oliver and Kaz, “You guys don’t have to get involved. This is our fight. It’s ours to win or lose.”

“Oliver is right,” Kaz says as the brothers hold onto Bree. He sighs. “It’s probably better if we call for backup first. Who knows what’s waiting for you up there?”

“We already have what we need to know,” Bree insists.

“You don’t even have a plan,” Oliver points out.

“What other plan do we need?” Bree snaps, whipping around to face him. “We find him, we take the transponder back, and we make sure he doesn’t hurt anyone ever again! End of story!”

Oliver stares, stunned. “End of story.”

“And we found him before your League of Superheroes found him, so there. We’re already better at them in something.”

Oliver nods. “Okay. I’m sorry. You’re right. You - you got this. Four years of experience. Better than superheroes.”

Bree simmers, glowering at him. “Adam, Chase, let’s go.”

A second after both of her brothers hold onto her, the three vanishes in a gust of air.

Oliver huffs. “We need to call Skylar,” he says to Kaz.

“Already on it,” Kaz says, his phone lighting up his face. He clicks the speed dial, and then puts the phone to his ears. “Dude, why did you argue with Bree for? Everything was going well.”

“Everything was _not_ going well. This is a dangerous situation. They tricked us.”

“I know, but you didn’t have to keep upsetting her.”

Oliver shoots him a look. “She practically called us fake doctors.”

“Well, yeah…”

“She also called me self-righteous when all I was trying to do is do the right thing.”

“Yeah, she was wrong for that.”

Oliver takes a deep breath. “And you know what’s worse?”

“What? Oh, hey. Skylar? Yeah, uh… We got a bit of a situation…”

As Kaz walks away to talk, Oliver turns towards the Eiffel Tower. “They forgot about their brother,” he mutters, answering no one. “But I guess caring about others is something I wouldn’t know since I didn’t go to med school.”

At that moment, two loud explosions, a few seconds apart from one another, echo in the sky.

Then they hear screaming, the sound coming closer to the ground. It’s followed by a snap, which seems to knock the air out of the person.

Then, an unsettling silence.

“Was that Bree?” Kaz asks.

Oliver doesn’t know. He can’t see anything.

But that voice. That voice…

It didn’t sound good. Her screams stopped way too quickly. If he had to guess, it was caused by falling into a net or by a rope tied around her body, a bait in a hook.

He hopes it’s the former. A net means bruises and maybe some sprains. A rope means... “What did Skylar say? Are they coming?” he asks urgently.

“Yeah. She’s angry, but she said she’s contacting Tecton now.”

“Good. I was hoping someone would do that.”

Before the two doctors can even turn, a neon green lasso has slammed against Kaz, locking him onto the ground.

“Kaz!”

The Incapacitator grabs Oliver’s arm, anchoring him in place. “You,” he says, smiling. “It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“No – Let him go!” Kaz yells, struggling to free himself.

“Incapacitator.” Oliver’s heart hammers so loudly inside him. He wants to move but he can’t.

He can’t.

The Incapacitator only grins wolfishly at Kaz. “We need to go somewhere private,” he tells Oliver. “The two of us have something to talk about.”

“What did you do to Bree?”

The villain only laughs.

At that moment, a neon green cloud engulfs them.

“Wait – Oliver, no!”

The last thing Oliver sees before the world dissolves is Kaz fighting with all his might against the lasso.


	17. XVII: Into Darkness, Part 2

This is an absolute mess.

It was already bad when one teenager almost died and another was kidnapped. But to have  _five_ be in peril? 

It’s days like this when Tecton worries about what his health would be like later in life. Yes, he has the ability to regenerate, and yes he’s immune to pain – but that’s not going to last forever.

With this amount of stress and abysmal amount of sleep, he wonders which disease would get to him first. High blood pressure? Incurable insomnia? 

A hand claps on his shoulder and startles him.  _My heart, then,_ he thinks. “Alex. Breathe,” Sharp advises quietly, the bustle around them not lost on him. 

“I’m trying.” He glances back behind him, making sure none of the other members see the uncertainty lingering about him. “Are all the equipment ready?”

“Yeah. I triple-checked to make sure they’re all good to go.”

“Good.”

She hesitates a moment as she follows him out of the Core. “I also packed the neutralizer just in case.”

Tecton pauses. “The neutralizer?”

“Negates any energy inside it.”

He thinks. “Is that new?”

“Yes.”

“Your invention?”

“Kind of.”

“Kind of?” The hesitant look in her eyes plus the word  _invention_ give him the answer. He sighs, putting his hands on his hips. “Magda…”

“It’s going to work, Alex. I promise. We’ve tested it multiple times.”

“We?” He leans closer to lower his voice. “So it’s not just Katrina who made it.”

“Yes.”

“Yes what?”

“Yes, it’s the two of us who worked on this.”

He hesitates. Sharp had come up with so many of the devices and gadgetry that the league members have found very useful. He knows she’s reliable. Still… “We’re in this situation because of a prototype. I don’t need another problem to arise because of another one.”

“It’s practically out of the testing phase. I haven’t tested it out in the field – but come on! What better time to do it than now?” Sharp reasons so excitedly, so surely, that it nearly convinces Tecton.

Nearly.

He runs a hand down his face then back up to his hair. He wants to argue more about it, but he knows she’s only going to win this debate. “Just make sure you supervise it - ”

“Okay.”

“And  _don’t_ tell anyone else about it,” Tecton instructs. “Also, only use it when absolutely necessary. I don’t want it backfiring on us.”

“You got it.”

“Tecton, I can’t reach Kaz,” Skylar says, walking towards their small huddle. “I’m extremely worried.”

“We’re about to head to Paris now.” Tecton leads the two women back into the Core, asking Blue Tornado: “How is everything on the ground? Are there still people needing transport?”

“Most of the civilians are out of the way,” Blue Tornado reports. “Our problem is the first responders and the reporters. Some of them are willing to cooperate, but most of them are pretty stubborn. They think they should be there.”

Tecton takes in a deep breath. Of course. “Someone needs to get a hold of the ambassador there.”

“Already placed a call,” Gamma Girl says. “He said he’s on his way to talk to the Prime Minister now.”

“Thank you.”

“Surge and Titanio already left to do a recon, just to be safe. Alley Cat’s on her way there now, too,” Solar Flare chimes in. She crosses her arms. “Tecton, I know this might seem like a big thing, but can’t we just send the trainees to handle this? Quasar, Pulsar, and Shockwave can take care of it. We’ve prepared them for it.”

Tecton opens his mouth to respond, but Gamma Girl replies disinterestedly with, “If The Incapacitator was able to move the three of us out of the way with a bit of power from a small island, imagine the damage he can do with power from a big city.”

“Okay, well, in that case, we should still involve them.”

“It’s not a good time. They could get hurt,” Blue Tornado says. “Incapacitator already has five teenagers held hostage, three of them being heroes. We don’t need to give him more ammunition.”

Solar Flare smirks. “Our trainees are different. They’re not like those kids,” she says. “Hailey, Phoebe, and Finlay are real heroes, not pretend ones. Surge and I made sure of it.”

Seeing from squared shoulders and puffed out chests that an argument is brewing, Tecton tames, “Okay, okay. Let’s calm down. Solar Flare, as much as I do think that they’re ready, I’m not comfortable taking them with us to this fight.”

“Why?”

“Because Incapacitator is my nemesis. That means the responsibility of his arrest primarily falls on me,” he says. He glances at Sharp then admits, “I...asked for your help because I can’t do this on my own. I can’t rescue the hostages  _and_ make sure everyone in the city is safe by myself. That’s why I asked for the league’s help.”

Solar Flare begrudgingly keeps her mouth shut. She catches sight of Skylar then nods at her. “What about her? Why is she involved?”

“She’s been assisting me since this first began. She knows as much about this as I do.”

Solar Flare nods. “So we trust her now?”

Tecton knows what she means. It’s not a question; it’s a challenge.

“Why shouldn’t we?” Sharp says, smirking defiantly. “She’s a registered superhero. Plus, last I heard, she knows how to handle a fight.”

Solar Flare can be sweet and kind, a woman who knows her duty to humanity, but one area she falls short in is hiding her feelings. 

The disdain she’s always seemed to feel towards Sharp seems to have grown a little bit more with that answer, Tecton notes.

_I can’t have them work together,_ he thinks. “Gamma Girl, you and Alley Cat are in charge of overseeing the people on the ground. We don’t know in what shape the kids will be in when we find them, so Gamma Girl, if you can be on standby…”

Gamma Girl nods, her arms crossed. “I’ll provide transport to the hospital when needed.”

“Thank you,” Tecton says then turns. “Solar Flare, if you don’t mind teaming up with Gray Granite and take air patrol…”

“Air patrol?” Solar Flare asks. “Shouldn’t I be down there with you to help you with The Incapacitator?”

“In case something happens to us, I need you two to be our backup.”

The frown on Solar Flare’s face suffices as a response.

“Spotlight, Sharp, Skylar – you’re all with me.”

“You want me on watchman duty?” Blue Tornado asks.

“If you don’t mind.”

Blue Tornado nods. He spins a chair towards him then plops down on it. 

“These are your communication devices,” Sharp says, tossing a small, circular gadget to each one of the heroes. “Spotlight told me that the most recent version of this was still a bit bulky – ”

“It was,” Spotlight chimes in. “My ear still hurts from the last time I had it on.”

“So I made this one smaller,” she continues, trying not to roll her eyes. “Enough to fit in your ears comfortably.” 

Tecton watches as the members plugged in the new devices. Some startle while some frown in uncertainty. 

“Captain,” Sharp says, holding up the last one for him.

Cautiously, Tecton takes it from her then slips it in.

The surprised expressions make sense now; the device fits perfectly.

“The audio - ” Sharp puts on hers, “should be crystal clear. It’s connected to the communicators built into your suits, so think of it as like a blue tooth earphone. Everybody can pretty much hear anybody wearing it wherever they go.”

“Won’t this fry?” Solar Flare asks, holding the translucent, gummy device.

Sharp shakes her head. “It shouldn’t. It should be able to withstand fire and even magnetic waves.”

Tecton catches Gamma Girl smirking. “Everyone has been assigned a team,” he tells the members. “This is not our first rescue and arrest mission, so I trust that all of you know what to do.”

Seeing the confirmation in their eyes, Tecton takes a deep breath. “There’s not much we know about The Incapacitator, but one thing’s for sure: he’s dangerous. At the moment, we don’t know if he has the Arcturion in his possession. If he doesn’t, we still need to proceed with caution. If he does…” He glances somberly at Blue Tornado. “We have to contain him in Paris for as long as we can so Blue Tornado can sound the alarm.”

“I’m assuming we don’t really have a contingency plan if that is what’s to happen,” Gamma Girl says.

Tecton shakes his head. “We just have to trust that the others will succeed in where we have failed.”

He senses the shift of fear in the room, one that can never be seen on their faces but they all instinctively feel from one another. As always, it moves him to tell them that everything will be fine, that all will work out okay.

But he knows that they’re all superheroes, and one of the most important and probably most bitter truths they understood early on in their careers is that one day, a fight or a rescue mission will be their last. 

So, he does what he can best as their leader: focus on the positive and press forward. “Thankfully, most of the people have been evacuated, and if everything works out according to plan we won’t have too many bystanders to worry about when we get there. Our main focus would be to capture Incapacitator and rescue Oliver, Kaz, and the three Davenport kids.

“Each team should have at least one person who knows either one or all of the hostages?”

Confirmatory nods answer him.

“Good. We can keep each other updated as soon as we find something,” he says. He debates for a moment whether to thank them for their help but decides that it’s best left for another time. “Everyone stay safe,” he says instead.

With that dismissal, the members separate into their own groups.

“Skylar,” Tecton speaks discreetly to the teenager. “Go with Sharp. You guys take one of the other compact aircrafts.” He nods at Sharp. “I’ll meet you guys at Trocad é ro.” 

“Wait.” Skylar glances at the members emptying out of The Core. Once most are gone, she asks him quietly, “What about Leo?”

“What about him?”

“Are we not bringing him?”

Tecton shakes his head. “No. It’s far too dangerous now.”

“But like he said, he can help us calm his dad down.”

“No. I know he could be helpful, but we could also be putting him in harm’s way.”

She’s frustrated, he can see. In a way, he also understands. After all, her plan made a lot of sense, and it would benefit both the league and Leo.

There’s not much time to lose with this mission, but he spares a bit to reason with her. “I’m sorry, Skylar, but try to see this situation the way I see it. If you were me, and you know there’s a high chance Leo could get hurt or even die, would you risk taking him there?”

Skylar doesn’t take long to think about it. “No.”

“I know you feel bad for him because he feels helpless, but he’s better off left here.”

“In case Incapacitator really has the Arcturion, and we can’t contain him,” Sharp assists.

Skylar’s still frustrated and torn. Eventually, though, she nods. “Okay.”

Sharp engulfs her with a one-armed hug. “Come on, girl,” she says, grinning as she guides her towards the  hangar . “Let’s go to France. You ever been?”

“France. What part of Earth is that again?”

Sharp chuckles. “The expensive part.”

Tecton watches as the two women vanish into the hallway. Once they’re gone, he turns to Blue Tornado. “Rich.”

Blue Tornado startles at the sound of his name. He slowly swivels the chair towards the leader of the league then hitches his brows. 

“If things go south, please look for the Davenports, too,” he requests. He hesitates. “Specifically, Leo. He’s currently at Mighty Med.”

“Leo. Who’s that?”

Tecton takes a deep breath. “Someone who can help,” he says. “Will let you know once we reach Paris.”

Blue Tornado nods back.

As the rest of the league had done, Tecton also heads to the hangar –  his mind already buzzing with the unknowns as well as the hope that the night will end without any lasting consequences.


	18. XVIII: Into Darkness, Part 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: talks of death, war

Out of all the things that could bother him, what gets Oliver the most is the smell. He doesn’t know why. He works in a hospital. Despite Bree’s opinion of his and Kaz’s qualification, he’d also seen and experienced the worst things this job has to offer.

He’s been puked on, bled on, peed on. He hasn’t had any patient die on him (thankfully), but at Horace’s behest he and Kaz had visited a morgue briefly.

Death. He’s smelled death too.

He guesses that’s why the scent wafting about the abandoned church bothers him so: there’s no certainty to it. He picks up the subtle but still obnoxious smell of mildew and mold; brief hints of aging religious relics; dying weed that had been lost in the forest growing inside.

It’s dead and alive at the same time – and that makes him extremely confused and uncomfortable.

Beads of sweat roll down the side of his forehead and neck as he watches The Incapacitator light another candle. Wind does blow from time to time, but since its only way in is through the opening in the ceiling nearly fifty feet up, it doesn’t bring him much relief.

He steals a glance at Chase. He’s on the other end of the makeshift altar, at the foot, curled around it. Like him, his hands are bound.

Unlike him, though, they’re bound behind him.

They’ve been there for nearly half an hour, and Chase hasn’t woken up yet. He doesn’t know if that’s a good thing. “I have to see if he’s okay,” he ventures.

The Incapacitator pauses. He turns his whole body to look at him, spins to look at Chase. Then, he rotates back to the huddle of candles lining the ornate fence. “He’s okay, don’t worry.”

“No, you don’t understand. Chase, he’s – he’s not a hundred percent healed yet.”

The Incapacitator says nothing, only takes a high tech wristwatch from his right boot and places it by the candles.

“You can keep me here, but we have to send him back to the Davenports,” he pleads. “Leaving him here in this condition could get us all killed. His chip—”

“Are you afraid, Oliver?”

Oliver. The sound of his name stills him. Rarely any villain bothers to learn his or Kaz’s names.

The Incapacitator turns to face him, a smile on his face. “Are you?” he asks again.

“A – afraid of what?”

“Dying,” says he, the shadow of the candlelight dancing on the side of his face. “Are you afraid?”

It makes Oliver pause. Is this it for him? Is that why he’s asking?

Seeing the fear on his face, The Incapacitator chuckles. “It’s normal, you know. To be afraid. Especially since you’re young. There are still so many things you haven’t done.”

“What about you?” Oliver musters the courage to ask as the villain gets up on his feet. He swallows. “Aren’t you afraid?”

The Incapacitator crosses his arms and leans on the steel fence. “That’s a good question,” he notes.

But he doesn’t say anymore.

Oliver takes that time to look around. He takes a cautious glance at Incapacitator before commenting, “So, you’re not, like, planning on telling me your plans while we’re waiting, are you?”

The Incapacitator laughs. He shakes his head. “What’s the use? You don’t really care. All you care about is getting _him_ out of here and probably getting rescued yourself.”

Oliver shifts, glancing at Chase. The superheroes were right: The Incapacitator _is_ smart. He doesn’t know what got in the bionics’ head to think that they can do this on their own. “Does Leo know you’re here?”

The grin on the villain’s face easily shrinks into a smile. “Why would he?”

“I don’t know. I just figured you might’ve told him.”

The Incapacitator only stares, measuring what he knows. “He was just a hostage.”

“He’s also your son.”

The smirk on his face remains there, leading Oliver to wonder how much self-control it takes him to pretend everything’s still going according to plan. “Is that what he said?”

Oliver shakes his head. “The league found out, even before he was rescued.”

The Incapacitator says nothing. He leans farther onto the steel fence, takes a really deep breath, and sighs. His eyes wander to the architecture that is the windows above.

A moment later, he clicks his tongue in dismay. “That’s unfortunate.”

It’s a reach, the appeal coalescing in his head. But with the uncertainty hanging about him and Chase, he decides that it’s worth the risk. “Leo’s worried about you,” he starts. “He’s doing all he can to protect you. He told Tecton he didn’t want you to get hurt.”

The Incapacitator grins in silence for a long moment. Then, he chuckles. “Trainee or a doctor.” He looks at Oliver, his eyes bright with victory. “My first guess was right. You are a doctor at Mighty Med.”

The fear strikes Oliver like a sucker punch to the chest. He knew his name. He knows his profession. _He’s been watching me?_

The villain looks at their surrounding with a bit of awe. “What do you think? I don’t know what your stance is as far as religion, but what do you think? Of this place?”

Oliver hesitates at first, but when he sees him waiting for a response, he takes a reluctant assessment of the church one more time. Seeing the candles and the tall shadows it casts on the walls somehow makes it feel warmer in there. “It’s absolutely trashed,” he says.

“Well, you’re not wrong. From what I read, this place used to attract a lot of people – parishioners, I think they called them. But then war came. Bullets flew, grenades flew, people died. People left.”

Oliver imagines it all happening in this building. It makes sense, the abandonment and wreckage that speak in every corner. He wants to think that the death toll was minimal, that there weren’t any families or children present when all that horror took place.

But he knows better. He’d seen pictures from both World Wars at school.

Death doesn’t discriminate.

His skin crawls. _People. Death._ “What did you do to Bree and Adam?”

A smirk pulls at Incapacitator’s lips.

It makes Oliver more uneasy the longer he maintains silence. “You can’t hurt them. They’re Leo’s siblings!”

“Siblings? As far as I’m concerned, I only have one child.”

“But they’re important to him.”

“He’s not important to them,” The Incapacitator says. He takes another deep breath. Unlike the one from earlier, though, this one betrays his exhaustion and sadness. “Leo – he’s not like me. He doesn’t like to see people for who they really are. He likes to think there’s good in everyone.”

“What’s so wrong about that?”

“Everything. Because selfish people like to take advantage of people like that.” He smiles. “You know, this church? It doesn’t just tell the story of the people who used to go here. It also says something about humans in general, gifted or not.”

“What do you mean?”

“Humans don’t respect what’s good. They like to think that they love good things, but they don’t. They only love it if it suits them. If it makes them feel good. But when good becomes difficult to do?” He looks at Oliver in the eye. “They destroy it. Then they leave it behind, like this church, and they just find something else and call that good.

“So you see, kid, humans? Nearly all of us are villains. Most people just like to pretend they’re not to make themselves feel better.”

“You said Leo’s not like you.”

“Yeah. That’s why I said _most_ ,” The Incapacitator points out, smiling. “Leo’s just like my mom. They’re different. Good is difficult, but they try it anyway.”

“Is - is there no more good left in you?” Oliver ventures, hopes.

The Incapacitator only chuckles. He looks at him, sizing his intentions again. “Why? Does it make you feel worse for Leo?” He shakes his head. “Don’t. He’s not the only one with a super villain parent here.”

It confuses him, that declaration. His first instinct is to look at Chase. He only knows as much as the public knows. Even after they met, he didn’t know much about the bionic trio and their family.

It’s possible that Incapacitator meant him, but…

But he wasn’t talking to Chase. Chase is passed out, miles away into something akin to oblivion. Plus, it didn’t seem like Incapacitator hinted at him.

 _It sounded like he was talking about me_ , Oliver concludes. But how can that be possible? He rarely sees his father, and though he has his own opinion of him, he doesn’t think that qualifies him for being a villain.

His mother…There’s nothing much to her. He even kind of wishes she’d have her own friends, her own life apart from his.

 _Mr. Terror is a woman_ , he remembers hearing Leo.

That thought suddenly brings back the countless times his mother would leave the dinner table because of a ‘phone call from the office,’ as well as the notes he would find around the house where she would tell him that she left early or had to work overtime because of a due date.

It had seem so innocuous and normal then. But now...

 _No,_ he tells himself. _It can’t be. She_ can’t _be._

He doesn’t notice the smile that grows on The Incapacitator’s face. “I used to be like that, too, you know.”

Oliver eyes him suspiciously. “Like what?”

“Believe that people will be good if I am good.” He pushes off the fence and strolls towards him. “I was the firstborn of two kids, so I’ve always felt responsibility on my shoulders. When I discovered I had powers, gifts, my immediate thought is to use it for the good of all. I wanted to be a superhero.”

He stops then grins bitterly. “Even when things were tough, even when people told me that I don’t belong, I still thought that they will change their minds once they see how good I can be to them.” He laughs. “But I guess that’s what fairy tales and comic books have in common: they’re both just works of fiction.”

Oliver’s heart squeezes in dread as The Incapacitator squats down to meet his eyes. “I see it in you,” The Incapacitator tells him, his voice so quiet now that it seems as if they’re the only two people in the world. “So much control. I bet, from the time you wake up to the time you go to sleep, you think about everything: what you did, what you’d do. ‘How could I have done better?’ ‘How could _I_ do better?’

“You feel like you should always be good, even when people tell you you’re less than. You have to be good, because that’s the only way people will continue to care about you.”

Oliver blinks – a physical reaction to being hit somewhere deep.

“Everyone expects so much from you lately, don’t they, Oliver? They want you to look after them, to not complain even when things have gotten so hard for you. They want you to clean up their messes, take the consequences of their actions. Smile even when you – when you feel like you’re dying inside. They want you to be their superhero.”

The Incapacitator smiles at him warmly, and for a moment Oliver thinks he’s speaking to a father who understands the way he feels.

“But it’s exhausting, isn’t it? All these expectations. Doing so much for everyone, but somehow ending up feeling so lonely at the end of the day. You’re young. All you want is to be a kid, just like everyone else.”

 _Yeah,_ Oliver almost says, but the last of his self-control prevents him from saying it.

“Do you wonder, too? How it would be like to just let go?” The Incapacitator asks. “How it would feel like to just let everyone deal with their own problems? To tell them that you’re done being their emotional punching bag? To tell them that you’re done giving them what they never would give back to you? Do you ever wonder about that?”

Wonder? He’s dreamed of doing it. On his darker days, he’d imagined telling Kaz how exhausting it can be to be his best friend. He cleans so much – _so much_ – of his messes, and even afterwards the consequences always fall on his shoulders rather than his.

On his darker days he’d even thought about telling Alan off, to scream at him and tell him that his powers don’t null the fact that no one has ever wanted to be his friend. Some days he got _that_ close to telling him that he’s a horrible person, and that Horace might be better off without him there at the hospital.

And on certain days of the year, when things are so bleak and hopeless and stifling, he’d thought of telling his mother that she needs to be a better mom. She relies so much on him that he’s exhausted.

 _I know what Dad did was wrong, and I’m sorry,_ he’s told her in his head so many times already, _but suffocating me like this, expecting so much from me and holding so tightly onto me, is not going to make him love you again!_

It scares Oliver, the realization that he holds that much anger and animosity against important people in his life. It scares him to realize he holds that much darkness.

Most of all, it terrifies him that The Incapacitator have brought it out with ease.

“You have,” The Incapacitator says in realization. He smirks. “Then what are you waiting for?”

Oliver swallows. “What...What are you asking me to do?” he asks, following the villain with his eyes as he gets up.

The Incapacitator goes back to the row of candles then peers over at the wristwatch.

He smiles at what he sees.

He then walks back to the altar, removes one of the green attachments from his belt, and the sets it in between the two boys. “When the time comes,” he tells Oliver, “you’ll know what to do.”

Immediately, a neon green dome encases the side where Chase lies.

Oliver’s eyes widen. “Hey—”

“You’ll be safe.” The Incapacitator looks at Chase then smirks. “I’ll be back for you.” Then, he vanishes in a green cloud.

The Incapacitator’s presence rings loud even after he’s gone. His words and his questions replay over and over again until it fills the whole church: _It’s exhausting, isn’t it? All these expectations? Do you wonder, too? How it’s like to just let go?_

_So you see, kid, humans? Nearly all of us are villains._

Oliver looks at Chase, how helpless he is despite the credentials Bree bragged about. It kicks up some of the resentment he felt towards them earlier.

_Then what are you waiting for?_

Oliver shakes his head fervently, ridding his mind of that question. “Chase,” he calls to the other teenager. “Chase, wake up. Wake up – we gotta get out of here.”

Chase shifts slightly, in much discomfort. However, he doesn’t wake up.

Oliver tries to wriggle his wrists out of their bind but fails. If they’re going to get out, it’s going to be up to him. So, he looks around for anything The Incapacitator may have accidentally left, something he can use to escape.

Which, he finds too soon, there’s none. Only the watch, and the candles.

His brows furrow. The watch. It looks so expensive, so advanced. _So familiar._ He’s seen it before, but where?

Then it comes to him: Adam was showing it to him and Kaz when they were on the island earlier. He gave a long and winded explanation of how he could keep it concealed under his suit.

From this distance, Oliver notices that it’s shattered.

Chills crawl up his skin. They heard Bree screaming, more than likely plummeting down from great heights, then her voice got cut abruptly.

Chase is currently enveloped in a bubble that could very well have cut him off from getting air.

Now, Adam’s shattered watch.

 _You’ll be safe,_ The Incapacitator assured him.

For the first time, Oliver wonders how many people exactly won’t be by the end of the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took a while for an update to be posted. Been dealing with a lot of big things in real life plus working on a big project. 
> 
> Not sure how soon the next chapter will come, but hopefully by next month updates would be sooner and more regular. Thank you for still reading :)


	19. XIX: Into Darkness, Part 4

Despite having traveled to other planets, Tecton doesn’t remember ever being in Paris. It’s probably because for one, it’s under the jurisdiction of another superhero. For another, the French government is just not too keen about him being there for some reason.

Still, there is one thing he knows for sure: the iconic place never looks like this – even in the wee hours of the morning.

Thanks to the combined efforts of Surge and Titanio, parts of the city have already regained power by the time they got there. Once again, the Eiffel Tower stands tall with its bright lights, extending up into the sky that’s now shifting into a lighter shade of navy blue.

But, there are no people around.

It’s eerie how quiet and deserted it looks. No tourists, no locals. It almost feels as if they’re walking into a theme park that, while still functional, had been abandoned for years.

It doesn’t help that Tecton feels eyes watching them from a distance.

“I don’t know about you guys,” Sharp says as she looks around, rubbing heat into her arms, “but this is giving me the creeps.”

“Same here,” Spotlight comments.

“Makes me wonder now how good of an idea it is to get the civilians away from here.”

“You scared, Marquez?” Spotlight teases with a grin.

“Gotta have a little fear in you to make sure you survive, right?” Sharp returns with a smirk.

Spotlight only chuckles as a response.

“Skylar, anything from Kaz yet?” Tecton asks.

Skylar pauses to retrieve her phone from her boot, cuing the group to stop. She eventually shakes her head. “No,” she says, slipping the phone back to its place. “Nothing from Oliver either.”

“Is this something that the League would have to talk about eventually?” Spotlight asks.

“Talk about...?” Tecton asks.

“This,” Spotlight says, gesturing around their general vicinity. “When the news broke out about there being bionic kids, we kind of touched on the subject of maybe reaching out to them and seeing if we can form a partnership.”

“Wait,” Sharp says, her hand up. “You guys had talked about the Davenports already? How come I didn’t know about this?”

Tecton shoots a glare Spotlight’s way before answering. “This was months ago, before you were even signed onto the League. Plus, you’re not the only one who doesn’t know. Blue Tornado and Gamma Girl hadn’t heard about it either.”

Sharp crosses her arms contemplatively. “What exactly were you guys thinking regarding the Davenports?”

“We should probably talk about this another—”

“Seeing if they needed our help,” Spotlight chimes in, crossing his arms with a grin. “Seeing if they want us to train them instead of a normo training them.”

“A little too quick on the ‘normo’ draw, Spotlight,” Skylar comments.

“So? It’s not like your friend Alan doesn’t use it all the time.”

“Yeah, we’re not friends.”

“Guys, please,” Sharp referees. She looks up at Tecton again and asks, “You guys ended up not contacting them? That would have been a good idea.”

Tecton takes a deep breath. This really isn’t the time for this.

“Can we talk about this another time?” Skylar asks as if reading his mind. “My friends are in danger. If they’re hurt, we need to find them soon.”

Spotlight shrugs, grinning.

Tecton, relieved with Skylar’s interruption, leads them forward.

They’re descending down the steps when Spotlight speaks again. “If you ask me, I don’t think it’s such a good idea now. They run their own school, and they even ignore jurisdictions? I don’t think they care about working with us at all.”

“Spotlight, please. That’s enough,” Tecton says.

“Why? I’m right,” Spotlight says, smirking up to the skies. “Marquez and Storm would agree with me. Won’t you, ladies?”

Sharp brushes off the statement at first. Then, she hesitates. “Okay, they built the school because they thought no one out here would help them and their students. That doesn’t mean they’ve written us off.”

“Okay, I’d give you that,” Spotlight genuinely concedes, “but what about _this:_ we already made it clear to them that we were going to get this all taken care of, but they _still_ decided to charge ahead. It’s pretty disrespectful, if you ask me.”

“We probably need to sit down and talk to them about it,” Tecton says. “There must be another reason.”

“What, other than they wanted to prove to us that they can do this on their own?”

“We don’t know that,” Sharp says.

“We _do_ know that. Why would they do something this stupid if not for some misguided sense of heroism?”

Tecton only glares at him, but he doesn’t tell him that he agrees.

Meanwhile, Sharp smirks. “‘Misguided sense of heroism’? Sounds very philosophical.”

“You’re not the only intelligent League member, Marquez,” Spotlight teases back. “I’d have you know, I watch Jeopardy! every night.”

“Majority of your patrols are nighttime.”

“Some nights are slow. I need something to stimulate my brain, too.”

Sharp laughs.

“Spotlight, Sharp, can we focus?” Tecton commands, ignoring the ugly feeling that shifts somewhere inside him after Sharp laughed at Spotlight’s joke. “He could be watching us.”

“You’re right. I’m sorry,” Sharp says. She exchanges grins with Spotlight before tapping into her earbud. “Gamma Girl, anything in the streets?”

_“No, sadly.”_

“Thanks.” She hesitates to tap her device again.

Spotlight catches it. “You can talk to Surge or Titanio.” He smirks. “It’s time for them to communicate with us anyway.”

Sharp only looks at him. She’s thankful for the encouragement – but the call won’t happen. Surge had been fickle about non-superheroes lately, and Titanio would just hit on her again.

At that moment, the sound of a ringtone ringing faintly in the distance stops them cold in their tracks.

Skylar looks around for the source, her phone in her hand again. Soon, she finds a curled form by the fountain, wrapped with a neon green lasso. “Kaz. Kaz!”

The form startles. He struggles to turn until he sees them. “Skylar!”

“Kaz!”

“Skylar!” Sharp calls after the teenager, taking off after her. “Skylar, wait!”

“There could be a trap!” Tecton says.

Skylar continues to run, not hearing them.

She also doesn’t see the fear that came to Kaz’s eyes, increasing more and more the closer they got. Kaz shakes his head fervently. “No. No. Stay away! Stay away! Skylar, no!”

A powerful force throws the four superheroes up in the air. They crash down hard and roll ungracefully – resulting in their first round of injuries of the night.

The Incapacitator appears from a neon green cloud, smirking. “Tecton. You took a bit longer than I was expecting.” He glances at the others, also struggling to get back on their feet. “I see you brought friends with you. Four against one. I didn’t think you thought so much of me.”

“You kidnapped five kids, forced a city into darkness, and endangered many people.” Tecton pulls himself up straight to face his nemesis directly. “You caused absolute chaos.”

“It’s an awful city that deserved it.” The Incapacitator looks at Kaz thoughtfully as he says, “As far as the children, I hardly think _kidnapping_ is the correct word for it. They came _to_ me, without being prompted. The fault’s on them.”

“Where are the others?” Sharp demands.

The Incapacitator looks at her, as if surprised. Then, he smiles superciliously. “You must be new,” he says. He looks at Tecton. “The League is trying to show some diversity, I see.”

“ _Where_ are the _kids?”_ Sharp asks again. “Where are the rest of them?”

The Incapacitator chuckles. He waves a hand towards Kaz, and it causes the lasso around him to vanish. He nods at the terrified teenager, gesturing for him to go join the other side.

Kaz hesitates at first. Then, he starts off towards Skylar.

“There,” The Incapacitator says as Skylar asks Kaz of his condition. “Since your _league_ have come this far. I’m not an unfair man.”

“Where’s Oliver?” Skylar asks the villain.

He only smirks at Kaz.

“I – I don’t know,” Kaz says when the others turn towards him. “He took him somewhere earlier. I haven’t seen him since.”

“What about Adam, Bree, and Chase? Where are they?” Tecton demands.

The Incapacitator hitches his brows. “I said I wasn’t unfair. I didn’t say I was stupid.”

“You can’t hold onto them forever, Incapacitator.”

The Incapacitator smirks. “Davenport acts like his children are God’s gift to mankind. Probably why they’re so cocky and don’t think things through. It might not hurt to show them how things usually work in the realm of the mortals.”

“You can’t hurt them,” Tecton says. “You shouldn’t. In a way, they’re part of your family, too.”

The villain chuckles bitterly. “Family?”

“Think of your son. Think of how hurting them will hurt him.”

The supercilious grin stays on his face, but it’s obvious through the subtle, cutting glare he directs at Tecton that what he said had touched a sensitive nerve.

It’s further worsened by Spotlight frowning at Tecton, confused, and whispering, “Wait. He has a child?”

“I think you’re mistaken, Tecton. I’m not one you can appeal to with plain emotions.” The Incapacitator clicks on a button on the cuff of his suit. “Air, water, and earth. Just three of the elements essential for us to survive. Sadly, it will have the exact opposite effect on these so-called bionic heroes. Or teenagers, since their abilities are all blocked.”

“If they die, how would you face your son?” Sharp reasons. “He loves you, but he loves them too.”

The Incapacitator sighs. “If I had known the League would overuse him like this, I would have gotten rid of him a long time ago.”

Those words shock the heroes into hurt and anger. “Monster,” Spotlight mutters under his breath, his frown sharpening.

“You don’t mean that,” Sharp says.

The Incapacitator only smiles a ‘don’t I?’ smile. “The other doctor also brought out the same concern you’ve brought out, so let’s extend the time from six minutes.” He taps on a few buttons on the same cuff from earlier. “Seventeen minutes. Seventeen, for my son – the only reason they’re still alive today and might live today. But I wouldn’t count on it.”

 _No more negotiating,_ Tecton concludes. The villain’s offer is as good as it would get, so there’s no use sitting there and wasting time. “Take Kaz and contact Blue Tornado,” he instructs Skylar. “Update everyone, too, of what’s happened.”

Skylar nods. “I’ll come back.”

“No. Just be on standby.” The Incapacitator smiles at him when he glares his way. “We need to rescue Adam, Bree, and Chase in time. The three of us can take it from here.”

Skylar hesitates for a moment. Then, after assessing the situation, she nods and leads Kaz to a safer place.

Once the teenagers are gone, Tecton turns his full attention to his nemesis. “We don’t want to hurt you, Incapacitator.”

“Oh, but I want to hurt you,” The Incapacitator grins.

“Last chance to surrender,” Sharp loudly declares, her knuckles glowing a bright bluish white.

The villain watches her and Spotlight with interest as they move to surround him. Soon, his hands begin glowing an intense neon green.

Tecton locks eyes with him, and he knows from then that this is going to be a long fight.

– Ϟ –

Bree awakes to a sharp, bitter chill pressing onto her arms and legs. She tries to move, but an even sharper, more malicious pang of pain shoots from her rib cage and her leg, causing her to yelp in agony.

Soon she realizes that it’s not only the ache that limits her movements: she’s wrapped in a net of some kind, encasing her fully.

For a moment, she thinks she’s just back at the island, accidentally entangled in a hammock of some sort. Looking up, she sees the stars and a towering shadow she thinks is a tree.

But then she hears the cold, howling wind. She hears traffic at a distance, cars impatiently bellowing with their horns.

Cars. Horns.

There’s no place for those on an island.

She’s further shaken awake by the realization that the noise isn’t coming from a distance in the horizon – it’s coming from beneath.

And she’s leaning against glass.

She gasps. She turns a little to her left to look – then screams.

Clouds, and the moon in an unusually closer distance. She’s surrounded by open air. A thousand feet beneath her is New York City, its people unaware of her presence.

Bree tries to move, to get up – but the pain on the left side of her body pins her in place. “Adam! Chase!” she calls. The cold air, thin and unforgiving, only chokes her and sends her coughing. “Help!”

No one responds.

With a grunt, she pulls her right arm up, and realizes that her hands are cuffed together. She takes a moment and shakes off the bad feeling it gives. She tries again, with her left hand helplessly joining this time, to tap the communicator in her ear. “Mr. Davenport – can you hear me? Mr. Davenport?”

The wind only sighs.

She pulls out the communicator to check it, but soon she finds that it wouldn’t turn on.

_No, no, no…_

She coughs again, the cold quickly drying out her throat and lungs. _Okay. It’s okay. It’s going to be okay,_ she tells herself as desperation begins to beat violently within her.

Training taught her to assess the situation. What she knows at the moment is that she’s injured, maybe broken ribs and fractured leg – the latter of which is not good considering speed is the only thing that might save her.

She tries to move her legs.

They’re tied together, too.

Looking up the net that held her within, she finds a device that holds it shut, like a thicker, bigger zip tie. It glows neon green in the middle, which makes her think of a timer.

A timer.

Dread swallows her whole.

The best way to survive would be to shake the cuffs off her hand using super speed, open the net, and climb up as far as she can to give herself enough ground to run on to get to the ground. With a fractured leg, it would hurt extremely, but it’s her best chance. _It’s better than hurtling down to the ground,_ she thinks.

So, she lifts up her hands and begins moving it back and forth.

Nothing happens.

“No,” Bree murmurs, fear spreading like a dark night within her. She tries again – but nothing happens.

Her speed is gone.

Her brain scrambles. It flashes different memories at her, of trainings, of her family, of New York city.

Of the violent death that will meet her below if she does nothing.

She remembers Eiffel Tower, how dark it was when they got there. How three steps in, a neon green lasso wraps around Chase and electrocutes him. How she tries to help, but then the floor beneath her explodes, and a second later she’s falling helplessly.

She fell into a net before blacking out – but she doesn’t know if Adam landed safely.

“Adam! Chase!” She tries to shake her feet off the binds, but the restriction only twists tighter on her ankles.

The tears threaten to come, but she fights it.

She can’t cry now. She can’t.

“Help! Help!” she cries out to anyone who might hear.

But the cruel evening breeze blowing through the city only laughs.

– Ϟ –

“Okay, I know you’re tired, Douglas. I am, too. But it’s the kids.” Donald runs a hand through his hair, not caring how it will look anymore, as he listens to his younger brother grumble. He takes a deep breath after Douglas repeats his request back. “Yeah. Just in case. You’ll see which program it is as soon as you access the cyber desk.”

He impatiently nods when Douglas repeats the sentence. “Yes, that one. Exactly.” He looks up when his brother asks where he is and finds Blue Tornado working a program that looked similar to the one he has on the island. “I’m somewhere where I can access the tracking devices. Look, I can’t stay long on the phone. Just call me back as soon as you find something, okay?”

Douglas grumbles his reply then hangs up.

Donald sighs. The adrenaline hitting him right now does the complete opposite of what it’s supposed to do; it’s exhausting him even more. “How much longer we have?” he asks as he joins Blue Tornado.

Blue Tornado clicks on a button. On the big screen in front of them, a countdown clock slowly descends, showing a remainder of 11 minutes, 37 seconds.

“That’s hardly enough time,” Donald mumbles.

“I’ve tried several times to locate your children through the GPS built in their chips,” Blue Tornado says, “but our locator can’t trace them. It’s highly possible that Incapacitator have placed a signal blocker on them. We need another way to find them.”

“Is this legal? How can you track them? There’s no way you can access their chips. The only one who knows how to do that is me and my brother.”

“I hate to brake it to you during this time, Mr. Davenport, but there are other people smarter than the ones in your family. One of them happens to be a member of the League of Heroes,” Blue Tornado answers factually, pulling up a facial recognition system.

Donald’s brows hitch. “Let me guess: you?”

“Sharp.”

“Okay, don’t need to be sarcastic.”

“No, I mean the person I’m talking about is Sharp. That’s her name,” Blue Tornado says. “Now I know comparing IQs is something we can put away for the meantime. I’ll keep our locator running to search for your children, just in case, but we need another method of locating them.”

Donald scoffs. “What, your smart female superhero can’t figure out another method?”

Blue Tornado turns around and looks at him cuttingly. “She’s currently fighting The Incapacitator so the others can rescue your kids. She’s trying to survive after buying them more time,” he says. “I know you’re tired, Mr. Davenport, but everyone’s pulling their weight. Now’s not the time to minimize what we’ve been doing for your family since this all began.”

Donald doesn’t know which digs at his conscience more: the superhero turning his back on him or the guy not speaking to him anymore afterward. “Okay. I’m sorry. You’re right; it’s not the time for this,” he gives in. “Uh, I told my brother to look for them through a program I had at home. This has happened before: Adam, Bree, and Chase had shut off their GPS which made it near impossible for me to find them.

“When I reconstructed their mission suits, I made the hilts of their belts with a mineral put together in our lab in Davenport Industries. It has a unique energy signature.”

“Energy signatures we can do,” Blue Tornado mumbles. Then, he pulls up another program.

“Now, again, it’s _unique_.”

“You still remember the specifications?”

“Yeah?”

Blue Tornado clicks on the Advanced Search option. He scrolls down to Companies. “You said you grew it in your company?” he asks as he scrolls down then clicks on US Companies.

“Uh...yeah?”

A bar shows up under the US Companies option. Blue Tornado types in Davenport Industries.

To Donald’s surprise, the program soon spits out a complete inventory of what his company has produced. He gapes at the screen. “What – How – ” He points at it. “You guys keep tabs on me! This is illegal!”

“Illegal is subjective, Mr. Davenport,” Blue Tornado says as he searches for the correct category. “I would also appreciate it if you would refrain from calling our activity illegal.”

Donald watches speechlessly as the superhero continues to narrow down on the mineral. It makes him feel a certain way, knowing that his company had been watched so closely that a complete list of inventions had been compiled and stored in someone else’s computer.

However, the indignant feeling is held at bay by the urgency that is Adam’s, Bree’s, and Chase’s situation.

“Was it just recently that it was manufactured?” Blue Tornado asks as he gets down to the Year Manufactured option.

“2014,” Donald grumbles, annoyed. “It was around spring when I got started on it.”

Blue Tornado zeroes in on the year then on the spring months.

“April,” Donald says with a roll of the eyes after Blue Tornado pauses. Once the list unravels, he points to the prototype number. “That one.”

Blue Tornado clicks on it. The program then asks if he wants to run a search.

He hits yes.

“I’m not comfortable that you have all of this information on my company,” Donald voices as the program thinks. “I know you said you hate the term, but none of this seem right.”

“Don’t take it personally, Mr. Davenport. We only use this for the safety of others.”

“What about our privacy?”

“We respect it. That’s why even if we knew your children existed, we didn’t meddle. Your affairs are your affairs.”

Donald blinks. “The superheroes knew about us?”

Blue Tornado says nothing, but the apathetic look in his eyes affirm it.

“We were struggling to take down a bionic madman, and you guys didn’t help?”

The computer beeps. Blue Tornado takes a deep breath and turns toward it. “Despite what you think of us, we know what lines not to cross. We’re not the kind to get in other people’s business just because we can, especially when we’re uninvited,” he says, taking the program’s offer to start the search.

He looks up at Donald afterward. “When boundaries aren’t respected, especially in our line of work, it only causes chaos. It only puts people’s lives in danger.” Then, he adds, “Hopefully, if everyone survives this night, you and your children would learn that.”

The pointed comment kicks up in Donald a new cloud of anger. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means, the League has asked Adam, Bree, and Chase to stay away from The Incapacitator, but they didn’t listen. Stopping him was our responsibility, and if they didn’t jump in and got themselves in this mess, we would have had more time to prepare and arrest him more safely.”

“Well, maybe they wouldn’t have done that if you guys had been better at your jobs.”

“We are good at our jobs,” Blue Tornado counters. “Being a hero doesn’t mean going in blindly towards danger to save others whatever the cost. Being a hero means knowing what’s right and respecting other people’s right to live.”

“My children know that.”

“Do they? Is that why they went back to the island and loaded up on weapons that could seriously hurt, and even kill, Incapacitator?”

“He’s a pain in your neck! He’s been trying to eliminate every single one of you for years now! And he also stole my invention while hurting others in the process. If he dies, wouldn’t that be a good thing?”

Every bit of anger lifts from Blue Tornado’s face. For a moment, he only stares, stunned. Then, the anger comes back – but this time it’s cold and detached. “I wonder if you’d have the same courage to ask your stepson that.”

He then spins his chair towards the computer and allows the resounding silence to speak to Donald the rest of the night.

– Ϟ –

Skylar checks the time on her phone then huffs. Just a little over five minutes left. Blue Tornado had updated them earlier, telling them that he had gotten Donald Davenport to help him in the search, but it seems that even the duo is not doing so well in it either.

Five minutes is plenty of time if Adam, Bree, and Chase are nearby.

But, she has a feeling they’re not.

“Seventeen minutes,” she mutters as she continues to pace. “That’s not being generous.”

“Can you please sit down?” Kaz asks, clutching a shock blanket closer to him. “You’re making me feel sick walking around like that.”

Skylar pauses. “Oh. Sorry. It’s just - ” She takes a seat next to him in the back of the abandoned ambulance. “I’m just getting really anxious. Blue Tornado hasn’t gotten back with us. Adam, Bree, and Chase don’t have much time left.”

“You’re a superhero, Skylar. You know five minutes could still be a lot of time.”

Skylar sighs, a foreboding feeling looming in her gut. “I don’t know. It feels different this time.”

Kaz blinks, at a loss for any comforting words. “Have you even slept yet? You’ve been working with the League since this all started.”

“I’m fine.”

“Skylar.”

“I had some sleep. I was about to eat when you called me.” She looks at him, frowning. “Horace is not going to be happy about this, you know. You should have called us as soon as you realized they were going after Incapacitator.”

“How many times do I have to apologize?” Kaz says. “Plus, it’s not like they would’ve allowed us to call you. When Oliver tried, they chucked his phone into the fountain.”

_“They threw his phone into a fountain?”_

“Chase _did_ , technically, but I’m sure any one of them would have done it.” He frowns, contemplating. “Well, Bree might have done it, but Adam wouldn’t have.”

Skylar rolls her eyes. “I can’t believe he’d fall for someone like her,” she mutters.

Kaz smirks, knowing exactly who ‘he’ was. “Why wouldn’t he? Bree’s pretty and a bionic hero. It doesn’t hurt that her family’s pretty loaded, too.”

Skylar glares at him. “That’s shallow.”

Kaz shrugs. “I’m just saying,” he says. “Look, Skylar – after almost dying, I realized that some things I just have to say: you and Oliver are my friends, and I want you both to be happy. I think it’s pretty obvious even to you that he likes you.”

Skylar sits up, cautious. She knows that, of course, but the bluntness of Kaz’s words still takes her by surprise.

“I don’t know how you feel about him, but I’m sensing some jealousy. My guess is that you maybe like him, too,” Kaz says. He puts his hands up as Skylar opens her mouth. “Hey, you don’t have to answer. That’s your business, and I’m staying out of it.

“But, what I am asking is that if you don’t like him the same way, or if you maybe prefer not to date right now...Skylar, just tell him. Oliver’s not a jerk. If you say no to him, he’ll listen to you. He knows how to take no for an answer.”

It’s definitely not a subject she wants to discuss at the moment, not only because the timing’s inappropriate but because it makes her very uncomfortable.

But, she can admit to herself that it’s been on her mind. She’d seen glimpses of Bree flirting with Oliver, and the ugly feeling that rises up within her every time brings the subject of her affection towards him to the fore.

Or, rather, the confusion she feels.

Static crackles in her earpiece, and it comes as a much welcome reprieve. _“We pinged their locations,”_ Blue Tornado announces.

“All four of them?” Skylar asks, sitting up.

_“Just three. I’m still looking for Oliver.”_

Skylar looks at Kaz and sees the same hope she had before Blue Tornado’s answer crushed it. “I’m just on standby. Is there anything I can do to help?”

_“No. Just stay there for now. They might need you. Now, Solar Flare…”_

“Skylar,” Kaz calls to her. “Did they find Oliver?”

Skylar shakes her head apologetically. She wishes she’d had better news to give him.

Kaz looks away, deep in thought. “Well, I’m sure they’d find him, too. The only people Incapacitator doesn’t like are the Davenports. He didn’t look like he wanted to hurt Oliver,” he says in an attempt to comfort them both. “Oliver will be okay.”

 _They run their own school, and they even ignore jurisdictions? I don’t think they care about working with us at all,_ Spotlight’s statement rings in the back of her mind.

It’s horrible, but Skylar hopes Kaz is right.

She hopes that if only one person could be spared, it would be Oliver.

– Ϟ –

“Look, Chase, I know your first instinct is to panic,” Oliver says, “but you really have to get your breathing under control.”

Chase lifts his eyes up to him slowly. “I’m running out of oxygen to breathe in,” he snipes, glaring. “What do you mean I _really_ have to get my breathing under control?”

Oliver huffs. Since Chase woke up and discovered that the amount of breathable air inside the bubble is dwindling, he’d become increasingly difficult to instruct.

Given, he _is_ going to die if help doesn’t come soon, but Oliver thought that the leader of the bionic trio would at least respect his credentials as a doctor who can help him through it.

He looks down at his binds at the moment and wishes he’d had Crusher’s super strength. It’d be nice if the main reason for wanting it is to save both of them from the situation they’re in.

Really, though, he just wants to get as far away from Chase as possible. _Adam’s right: he’s super annoying_ . _He’s also extremely rude._

At that moment, Chase stops his attempts to break free from his own chains to frown at him. “Is there really nothing you can do to get yourself out and help me?”

“How? Tell me how I’m going to do that,” Oliver snaps. “Between the two of us, you’re the one with abilities. If you can’t get yourself out of it, what makes you think I can do it?”

“I don’t know! Aren’t you supposed to be a doctor?” Chase irritably tugs at the cuffs anchoring him. He huffs, failing miserably. “Why don’t you figure this out?”

“I didn’t go to med school, remember? But you and your siblings have four great years of training. Why don’t you put that to use now?” Oliver says. “And aren’t you guys supposed to be better than superheroes?”

“I didn’t say we were better.”

“Right, because you didn’t just ignore the League when they asked you to wait.”

“How can we not?” Chase fires back. “They completely took over without involving us, and they interrogated Leo without our permission.”

“What do you mean ‘without involving you’? Your uncle and your dad were working along with the League since the attack! Skylar made it a point to update your mom whenever she can regarding Leo,” Oliver points out. “And as far as your brother, why do others need to ask for your permission when they want to talk to him? You don’t own him.”

“That’s not what I’m saying, and you know it.”

“Oh, really? Because it seems to me that between the two of us, I’m the only one seeing why this is all happening in the first place.” He scoffs. “You know, maybe if you stopped thinking so much of yourselves, this whole thing would have been avoided.”

“We’re not selfish.”

“Selfish? No. Borderline narcissistic?” Oliver nods. “Very much so.”

Chase glares. “Don’t pretend you know us.”

“Oh, I’m not pretending to know you – not that I want to. I’m just saying what everybody else is probably too afraid to tell you.”

Chase says nothing more after that, but it’s obvious from the faster rise and fall of his chest that the argument have left him heated.

At that moment, Oliver notices the oximeter displayed on the translucent neon green bubble. 96% drops down to 95%. It’s not bad, but it’s not healthy either. Chase had been irritable, and he’d seen him massage his temples, too.

Horace would be better at diagnosing this, or maybe even Dr. Yoon, his friend from the outside hospital who he would occasionally consult with, but Oliver knows enough that Chase’s chances aren’t looking good.

Another five to ten more minutes inside the bubble, or maybe one lengthier intense argument, and Chase could be looking at something more fatal and permanent.

Oliver looks at the heart rate and then at Chase. He and his siblings are the type of people he strongly dislikes. Rich, owns everything, popular. Entitled. They know the whole world revolves around them, so they don’t take into account the others who could get hurt by their recklessness.

And why would they? They know they’re above the law.

For a brief second, a dark thought prods at him. No one can see them there. All it would take is to get Chase riled up enough so he’d thrash and argue and scream. Then he’d pass out.

And he would get his silence. No one bossing him around and questioning his skills or abilities. No one telling him what to do.

And if something was to happen...this is their fault anyway. It’s only fair they learn a lesson about how things work in the real world.

_Then what are you waiting for?_

Oliver realizes how horrible that thought was. He blinks, shakes his head, and hopes for forgiveness for even feeling that way. “I’m sorry,” he tells Chase. “This isn’t the time to argue, so let’s not do it. You need to conserve as much energy and air as you can. My advice is to just lean back and chill until help arrives.”

Chase frowns, offended. “How can I...”

Oliver closes his eyes as Chase continues to nag. He takes a deep breath and imagines any place but here. Hearing that the bionic leader had gone silent, he looks at him. “6%. You’re about 6% away from potential brain damage,” he says. “Your call.”

That seems to have done the trick. Though still smarting from the harsh reality, Chase finally closes his mouth. “Sorry,” he mutters.

Oliver looks at him a moment to gauge his sincerity. Then, he nods. “Okay.”

Silence blankets the church awkwardly, but it doesn’t stay long. Soon, they hear cautious movements.

The shadows dancing from around the corner causes Oliver to sit up as he think of frightening things. “Uh… You heard that, too, right?”

He had hoped Chase would be braver, even nonchalant – but he finds similar fear. “Maybe someone’s coming to spray paint?”

The sound increases in volume and soon they realize they’re footfalls.

 _The Incapacitator?_ Oliver wonders. But he would have just teleported like he did earlier if it was him coming back.

Plus, there are two shadows, both women.

And both familiar.

He releases the breath he’s been holding when they round the corner. He smiles in relief. “Gamma Girl. Alley Cat – you came,” he says.

Alley Cat grins. Meanwhile, Gamma Girl only smirks. She presses on something in her ear and reports, “Found Oliver. Chase Davenport is here, too.”

“How’d you find us?” Oliver asks.

“Mr. Davenport. He had a homing device on his children,” Alley Cat answers.

 _Okay? Strange?_ Oliver thinks, but he’s too overwhelmed with relief that he decides to dismiss it for now. “I’m so glad you’re both here.”

Gamma Girl nods at Chase as they carefully circumvent the rusted debris and broken glass. “What’s with that?”

“I don’t know. Incapacitator locked him inside,” Oliver explains. “The oxygen levels in the bubble are going down. We can’t disengage it.”

“Well, I might have something for that,” Gamma Girl says. She smirks. “Unfortunately.”

Chase glares at her. He looks away – then his eyes widen. He gasps then looks at the women. “Hey, watch out!”

But the warning came a little too late. An earth-shaking roar had sent both women flying into the air.

Gamma Girl crashes against the fence. Meanwhile, Alley Cat is tossed onto the steps where she lands gracefully.

As they work on getting back on their feet, another person emerges from the shadow.

Oliver and Chase both note the skin visible from his nearly engulfing leather coat: pale, grayish like the garment. Spotted with black all around.

His irises are unusually gold, alarmingly fierce.

They match the knife-like canines peaking from his mouth. If that isn’t unsettling enough, the predatory smirk that pulls at the edge of his lips chills them to the bone. “You’ve been away for too long, Kitty,” he tells Alley Cat in a hoarse, growl-like voice. “The pride misses you.”

Oliver’s eyes widen as he realizes who their unwelcome visitor is. “Cannibal…”

Chase looks at him. “ _Please_ tell me he picked that name because he wanted to sound metal, not because he actually eats people.”

Oliver only swallows.

Cannibal looks over at the boys. His eyes light up. “I’m not going to let you walk out of here with them, Kitty. You know that, right?”

“And I never cared about what you think, Cannibal. You know that, right?” Alley Cat returns.

“Let me guess,” Gamma Girl says, “The Incapacitator sent you?”

Cannibal shrugs. “I get to check on my sister and have dinner,” he says. He grins a grin at Chase. “I’ve never had to eat around wires before, but I’m not picky nowadays.”

“We’re not family,” Alley Cat says. “The pride has long rejected you.”

Cannibal’s expression slowly turns dark. “Yeah? I guess I’ll just eat then.”

Gamma Girl takes a step in front of the boys. “If you can get past us, that is.”

Enraged, Cannibal draws in air then lets out another earth-shattering roar. This time, Gamma Girl draws up a shield to protect the four of them.

Before they know it, Cannibal is charging forward. Alley Cat is ready for a fight. She had pulled out a pair of batons and is charging towards the person she once knew as family.

She lets out a war cry – and the once silent church once again fills with the sound of battle.

– Ϟ –

Adam winces as the cramps on his arms worsen. His hands had been tied behind him for what feels like hours now, and his muscles are burning for the relief of freedom.

It’s not like he hasn’t tried for it. He kept trying to break the steel cuffs that dug into his skin, but it was all for naught.

He somehow had lost his bionic abilities – and it wasn’t until just an hour ago that he realized that.

“Ugh, that really hurts,” he mutters, his voice echoing within the small confine The Incapacitator left him in.

Coming up with escape plans had never been his thing. That’s usually Chase’s, sometimes Bree’s. He was just the guy they can count on to break and smash things.

Getting out of situations like these isn’t his specialty.

A sharp pain shoots to his neck, causing him to muffle a groan. _If I was Chase, what would I do?_ he asks himself as he tries to work the cramp out by slowly moving his shoulder.

He thinks back on the things his younger brother usually said whenever he nagged at him on mission sites but comes up with almost nothing.

For a very rare moment, he kicks himself mentally for not listening. If he had, he would’ve been better equipped to deal with his situation.

 _Figure out where you are first, idiot,_ a voice like Chase’s rings at the back of his head.

Adam frowns. That was kind of a dumb thing to ask of him. How can he know where he is? It’s pitch black where he sits. Not only that, he’s also convinced he’s caged by boxes that reeked of salt.

 _Wait,_ he thinks. _Salt?_ The sounds that he heard earlier comes back to him. He thought he had just imagined it, but he heard someone barking orders to another person in the distance. He also picked up the whirring and clanking of chains above.

He vaguely remembers the room swaying, but he thought that it only felt like that because he was dizzy from the lack of space. Maybe it really _was_ moving.

His frown deepens. Boxes. Salt. Machines.

Perhaps a boat.

 _Think, Adam,_ he imagines Chase telling him. _If you put all of those together, where are you?_

He processes all of the four items as a unit, over and over for a period of time.

Then, it comes to him: “Shipping dock.”

A loud explosion rocks the container he’s in, causing him to slam against something and for boxes to fall over him. Just when he’s beginning to realize the need for balance, another explosion rings in the distance.

A loud, metallic groan follows in a matter of seconds. As the ship underneath cries to the dark skies, Adam finds his world tilting in a nerve-racking axis.

As everything slides forward, slower at first then faster and faster, a container outside slams against the one he’s in, generating a loud, thunderous sound.

He tries to get to his feet, sure now that he had broken a few bones, when the container begins to tilt forward even more. “No, no, no! No - ”

Another _boom!_ rings throughout as another container slams against the one he’s in.

The collision sends him flying forward and landing on a cushion of boxes.

Relief washes over him when everything suddenly stops. His heart beats a million miles a minute as he both savors the silence and fears the sound of things falling into the sea outside.

Things ease into a standstill for what feels like long enough.

Then, he hears the sound of water trickling in.

“No,” he mutters, looking around him for the source. However, with limited amount of light, all he can rely on is that subtle but threatening sound. “No, no, no…”

Without his watch, he can’t communicate with his father and his siblings. Without light, he can’t explore other options. Without his bionics, he can’t break out of the steel cuffs and swim.

Not only can he not swim, he also can’t breathe underwater like he used to be able to do before.

Adam swallows, his throat dry. “Help! Someone still here! Help!”

He can’t die like this. He can’t, he can’t, he can’t.

However, despite his will to live, polluted ocean water only continue to fill the container.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm sorry it took so long to update this. Action sequences are forever a struggle for me. It's just always awkward, and they're really not things I enjoy writing around. 
> 
> Hopefully the next chapter won't take too long. It's moving a bit faster, so there's hope :) 
> 
> Anyway. Have a great weekend.


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